cire@CLASH.CISCO.COM (09/29/88)
Arg. It is amazing but oh so natural for human types for things to get strange. I read what Horton had to say and on the surface it makes lots of sense but there are many things that distort the real issue here. Apple is not trying to establish a clear copyright and claim over what it has written but over something as nebuleous as a "look". This is the problem. When does something "look" enough like something else to consider them the same things? There are cases I have come across where two things look the same but are very very different. "Looks" generally get people in trouble. And besides the whole thing is a mess. Apple is suing HP and MicroSoft over the look and feel of MSWindows and HP's NewWave system. Seems Apple is alleging that this stuff is infringing on their rights to the Macintosh look and feel. It is stretching things to say Windows has the same look and feel. And HP's NewWave stuff is very very flexible. While it is certainly possible to make NewWave look like the Apple stuff it is not hard coded. I'm sure that both HP and MicroSoft have invested many hours and dollars in these investments. I don't see how it is an infringement. And then to put the cap stone on this whole mess the original concepts came from Xerox. Sigh. There has also been comments about the approach Richard is encouraging will lead to forced sharing. That is not nor has it ever been the intent of the Free Software Foundation (not that I speak for them). Forced sharing could also be said to be a oxymoron. There is currently an extreme danger presented by Apple and its law suit. This danger is to the free expression and resulting implementation of usefull things. Basically if I do something that looks like something someone else has done they can come after me. This is a two edged sword and is where much of the confusion is coming from. This sounds like I want the freedom to copy what other people have come up with. But it doesn't have to be that way. I could simply be doing a different implementation of a generally useful concept or tool. Where is the dividing line? That is what I see as the danger. -c cire|eric Eric B. Decker cire@clash.cisco.com I speak for myself here. My mouth and mind are not for sale.