shobart@oracle.com (Sarah Groves Hobart) (03/22/91)
I'm a graduate student (Master's) at the University of California, Berkeley, and I'm working on a final research paper concerning the recent dBASE copyright invalidation ruling. I'd very much appreciate it if you would respond to the brief survey below via e-mail. Please note that I am currently employed by Oracle. This research paper has no relation to my work there. The results of the survey will be used strictly for my academic research paper. If there is enough interest, I will post the summarized results of the survey to the net. Thank you! Sarah Groves Hobart ====================================================================== In December 1990, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Hatter invalidated Ashton-Tate's copyrights on the dBASE line of products. 1) Do you believe that this ruling will have an effect on Ashton-Tate's share of the PC database market? If so, what effect do you think it will have? 2) Do you think this ruling will have an effect on database standards in the PC database market? If so, what effect do you think it will have? 3) Would knowledge of this ruling affect your decision to use or buy dBASE? If so, what effect would the knowledge have on your decision? 4) Please check the newsgroup in which you first read this survey: ___ comp.databases ___ misc.legal
awd@dbase.A-T.COM (Alastair Dallas) (04/03/91)
The following are my personal feelings only; I am not a spokesman for Ashton-Tate. In article <1991Mar21.221312.4815@oracle.com>, shobart@oracle.com (Sarah Groves Hobart) writes: > In December 1990, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Hatter invalidated > Ashton-Tate's copyrights on the dBASE line of products. No, actually I believe Judge Hatter threw out a particular case based on his feeling that Ashton-Tate filed for copyright protection improperly. It is not clear to me that Judge Hatter has standing to invalidate a copyright, nor that he was asked to. Ashton-Tate is appealing his ruling of the case in question at any rate. > 1) Do you believe that this ruling will have an effect on Ashton-Tate's > share of the PC database market? If so, what effect do you think > it will have? The success of dBASE has always baffled me; kind of like the success of Prince or Smurfs. The answers I get when I go looking are things like the availability of third-party support, corporate standards, reliability of the company, etc. No offense, but I would imagine someone from Oracle would appreciate in particular that marketing and aggressive sales can create market demand for software of any kind, even vaporware. So, in this context, I don't think this lawsuit will have any impact whatsoever. And I certainly haven't heard of any such impact. > 2) Do you think this ruling will have an effect on database standards in the > PC database market? If so, what effect do you think it will have? No, for the same reasons. Ashton-Tate is extremely strong these days-- we have millions of dollars in the bank, we're making a profit and so forth. If this ruling threatened us with bankruptcy I can see where corporate America would sit up and notice, but it doesn't do anything of the kind. We can appeal this until we win (this under the heading of "how much justice can you afford?"). Our copyrights, meanwhile, have been affirmed by the Registrar of Copyrights himself and all existing copies of dBASE are covered by licensing agreements with individual users. > 3) Would knowledge of this ruling affect your decision to use or buy > dBASE? If so, what effect would the knowledge have on your decision? Of course not. I will be interested to see the results of your survey, however. > 4) Please check the newsgroup in which you first read this survey: > _X_ comp.databases I was hired by the author of dBASE, Wayne Ratliff, and I've worked closely with the author (administrator) of JPL/DIS, Jeb Long. Judge Hatter felt that because the user interface of dBASE was influenced by looking at JPL/DIS (but not at source code) that Ashton-Tate should have checked the "derivative" box instead of the "original" box on the copyright application. By this rule, I sure hope the copyright applications for every spreadsheet ever written checked "derivative" (only VisiCalc and T/Maker need not apply, I guess). If your survey shows that perceptions of dBASE in the marketplace will be affected by this, I will be very surprised (even more so than I am by Smurfs). /alastair/ -- |Disclaimer: I am speaking for myself, not as a spokesman for Ashton-Tate, |which does not monitor my outbursts here. I reserve all rights to my |opinions in terms of commercial endorsements.
glenn@welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason) (04/10/91)
In article <1991Apr3.011116.15228@dbase.A-T.COM> awd@dbase.A-T.COM (Alastair Dallas) writes: >The following are my personal feelings only; I am not a spokesman >for Ashton-Tate. > >In article <1991Mar21.221312.4815@oracle.com>, shobart@oracle.com (Sarah Groves Hobart) writes: >> In December 1990, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Hatter invalidated >> Ashton-Tate's copyrights on the dBASE line of products. [ stuff deleted ] >So, in this context, I don't think this lawsuit will have any impact >whatsoever. And I certainly haven't heard of any such impact. I'll bet Fox Software would be in disagreement with this statement. At the very least this ruling increases the competition between A-T and Fox and grants Fox clear sailing in their attempts to increase their share of the PC database market; at the most it gives Fox major momentum in establish- ing their product as superior database package and opens the door for other software developers to bring their dBASE-compatible language products to market. In my opinion ... that *is* an impact. >> 2) Do you think this ruling will have an effect on database standards in the >> PC database market? If so, what effect do you think it will have? > >No, for the same reasons. Ashton-Tate is extremely strong these days-- >we have millions of dollars in the bank, we're making a profit and >so forth. If this ruling threatened us with bankruptcy I can see where >corporate America would sit up and notice, but it doesn't do anything >of the kind. We can appeal this until we win (this under the heading ^^^^^^^^^^^^ This guy seems pretty confident that A-T will eventually win this case. Any appeal has a lesser chance of being overturned than the original case or the last appeal ... I hope you're not holding your breath waiting for the courts to send a favorable finding your way. >If your survey shows that perceptions of dBASE in the marketplace >will be affected by this, I will be very surprised (even more so than >I am by Smurfs). This is probably true for the most part. It is probably the combination of other vastly superior and evolving PC database packages such as Fox Pro, Paradox, Clarion, etc. and the inability of A-T to bring a stable, efficient database product to market that will eventually bring about its downfall. Just my opinions, of course, flame by email only please, Glenn