jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jeffrey M White) (12/21/89)
In article <935@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU> csachs@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Colin Sachs) writes: >(Jeffrey M White) writes: [In reply to (Chris Newbold) re:Xerox suit) > >> Note that this case is >> different from the Apple/Microsoft case, in which Apple and Microsoft already >> had an agreement. Apple sued because they felt the changes MS made in version >> 2.0 of windows weren't part of their previous agreement. > >No. I think they sued because they felt that the changes MS made in v.2.0 >of windows put that product and all PC machines in direct competition with >the Macintosh computers. Apple set themselves up for the suit from Xerox >by pushing their so-called proprietary rights to the graphic/windows >interface. Plain and simple. > That would be the obvious economic reason to sue. However, there MUST also be a legal reason behind it, especially since Apple has already won part of the case. Apple can't walk into court and say '... this new producet is going to cause us to lose sales, so we want to sue them to prevent it from coming to market.' Every company would be suing all of their competitors. I feel most people THINK that Apple probably got some, if not a lot of their Lisa/Mac user interface from the Xerox Star, and were always wondering whether they were ever going to get sued for it, especially when they sued Microsoft for supposedly copying part of Apple's. It's almost too obvious, though, so I have to feel that some of what Apple says must be true (they can't be that stupid, can they??). Jeff White University of Pennsylvania jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
fiddler%concertina@Sun.COM (Steve Hix) (12/21/89)
In article <935@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU>, csachs@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Colin Sachs) writes: > (Jeffrey M White) writes: [In reply to (Chris Newbold) re:Xerox suit) > > > It's hardly like Apple all of a sudden came out > > with an interface that looks like the Xerox one. > > No. But the fact remains that Xerox had the graphical interface and windows > concept long before the Apple Mac's even existed. And Apple did not > develope the concept independently. Nor did Xerox. Much of the foundation to their work was developed at places like SRI. Xerox did not do their work in a vacuum. ------------ "...Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise anyone who receives it, in the belief that such writing will be clear and certain, must be exceedingly simple-minded..." Plato, _Phaedrus_ 275d
peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (12/22/89)
As I understand it, Xerox is not suing Apple for violating their copyright but for misrepresenting it as their own. -- `-_-' Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. <peter@ficc.uu.net>. 'U` Also <peter@ficc.lonestar.org> or <peter@sugar.lonestar.org>. "It was just dumb luck that Unix managed to break through the Stupidity Barrier and become popular in spite of its inherent elegance." -- gavin@krypton.sgi.com