[comp.sys.hp] Broderbund Pshop Lawsuit

daniel@unicom.UUCP (Dan Smith, not your average Lithuanian...) (03/31/88)

In article <5134@venera.isi.edu> raveling@vaxa.isi.edu (Paul Raveling) writes:
>In article <2543@charon.unm.edu> cs2531bn@unmc.UUCP (Lazlo Nibble) writes:
>>
>>Far too late for that already.  The courts have already decided that the "look
>>and feel" of a user interface CAN be copyrighted.  Remember the lawsuit that
>>Broderbund won over one of the Print Shop clones?
>>

	If you are referring to "PrintMaster", there was a good reason for
that lawsuit. The programmers were originally writing that *for* Broderbund
for the PC. Something happened (they didn't want to make certain changes
in the program, contract dispute, etc.) and those programmers decided "fine!
we'll start our own company and market it anyways". I was working at Broderbund
at the time, and remember seeing an early version of PrintMaster - it was
Printshop for the PC, for all practical purposes...it wasn't as different
as the Mac/PM interfaces. I mean it was *really* close to the Apple II version
of Printshop. David Balsam and Marty Kahn were pretty upset about it, being
the original authors. Broderbund had a programmer or two start on a new
PC version, and that ended up being marketed, and it did fairly well.

				dan

dan smith, island graphics, marin co, ca|"A womp ba ba lu ba, a womp bam boom!"
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