jsp@key.COM (James Preston) (04/04/91)
In article <91MAR30.004457@ducvax.auburn.edu> wadew@ducvax.auburn.edu writes: >Why are you mad about Apple's look and feel lawsuit? It's just trying to >protect that which sets Macintosh apart (and to many, makes it better). Because it's stupid. It is trying to bring the copyrightable unit down to too fine a level of detail. It is on par with Ford suing Chevrolet claiming that the former was the first to put four wheels on cars, so the latter should be forced to use some other number of wheels. It impedes the progress toward standardization. It is on par with the originator of the "QWERTY" keyboard suing to force all other keyboard makers to use other arrangements of the keys. It's just plain greedy. I'm all for a company profiting from its work, but there is a line between reasonable profit and greed. Apple is well over that line. --James Preston
mbrown@testsys.austin.ibm.com (Mark Brown) (04/04/91)
In article <91MAR30.004457@ducvax.auburn.edu> wadew@ducvax.auburn.edu writes: |Why are you mad about Apple's look and feel lawsuit? It's just trying to |protect that which sets Macintosh apart (and to many, makes it better). Easy. Here's an example you can understand.... There are only so many ways one can ask for entry of name, address, phone #. When all of those ways are "look and feel" copyrighted, no-one else will be able to write a new program that wants that information. *That's* what look and feel leads to. Mark Brown MAIL: mbrown@testsys.austin.ibm.com OR uunet!testsys.austin.ibm.com!mbrown Which came first: The Chicken or the Legba? DISCLAIMER: Any personal opinions stated here are just that.
jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan) (04/05/91)
In article <6400@awdprime.UUCP> mbrown@testsys.austin.ibm.com (Mark Brown) writes: >In article <91MAR30.004457@ducvax.auburn.edu> wadew@ducvax.auburn.edu writes: >|Why are you mad about Apple's look and feel lawsuit? It's just trying to >|protect that which sets Macintosh apart (and to many, makes it better). > >Easy. Here's an example you can understand.... > >There are only so many ways one can ask for entry of name, address, phone #. >When all of those ways are "look and feel" copyrighted, no-one else will >be able to write a new program that wants that information. > >*That's* what look and feel leads to. > >Mark Brown >MAIL: mbrown@testsys.austin.ibm.com OR uunet!testsys.austin.ibm.com!mbrown > Which came first: The Chicken or the Legba? > DISCLAIMER: Any personal opinions stated here are just that. Faulty reasoning. We're not talking about the layout of data on a page; more like the layout of a form with borders, text styles, etc. And that form *is* copyrightable (or patentable). Because I create a awesomely better form for entering personal finance information, does that mean that since everyone should benefit from better financial structure that I don't have the right to protect my research and development? Does it seem fair that people could take my form, change the color of the ink, or the thickness of the borders, and sell it? Doesn't seem so right to me. jas -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey A. Sullivan | Senior Systems Programmer jas@venera.isi.edu | Information Sciences Institute jas@isi.edu | University of Southern California