jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan) (06/17/89)
[A lot of increasingly wild and cocksurew speculation about Apple's intentional leaking of its ROM source.] I admit that the thought had crossed mny mind that Apple might have leaked the ROM source intentionally when the news of how it affected clone makers was posted, but I immediately passed on this. Why? A few reasons: -- Apple has already made clear their legal view of clones (e.g., Franklin computers) -- The posting of source would only aid clone-makers who don't care about the law. -- For a company so tight about proprietary technology, this is wildly improbable, if not inconcievable. -- It's bad business to cast your trade secrets out and hope that this contamination will help you legally (where you can never be sure of the results). If they lost the case, they just put a bullet in their corporate brain. There's no way a board of trustees would allow that kind of multi-multi-million dollar risk to take place. FLAME Now, to those people who have already concluded "It's defintely a publicity stunt, and shame shame on you Apple!" I say: Are you kidding? In virtually the same breath we have those crying for cloners rights denying the same innocent-till-proven-guilty rights to Apple, despite a GROSSLY lower probability that Apple did anything even slightly improper. It is simply too far a leap of faith to state the fact that Apple leaked this information. To those people who seem to conclude that Apple deserves to get burned to the ground because their legal posting was "too mean": what do you expect? This compaqny may have just had their lifeblood yanked from its veins, and maybe they heard of a plan to post the source to the net. Either way, if their wording was too strong, big deal. And if they implied that a keeper of knowingly stolen goods is a criminal, then they were only agreeing with the US law on this matter. A warning is better than an (equally legal) after-possession prosecution, no? FLAME OFF Anyway, it never ceases to amaze me the kind of resentment that seems to well up toward Apple because they take LEGAL means to protect their investments. Discalimer: I am a secret Apple Mole sent out to foster good will toward the Evil Empire of Apple. ;-) Disclaimer2: NOTE!!!!! -----------^ -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey A. Sullivan | Senior Systems Programmer jas@venera.isi.edu | Information Sciences Institute jas@isi.edu DELPHI: JSULLIVAN | University of Southern California