Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!ntvaxb!ac08
From: ac08@vaxb.acs.unt.edu
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Europe's attempt to copyright interfaces is insane
Message-ID: <23717.26243e7e@vaxb.acs.unt.edu>
Date: 12 Apr 90 08:38:22 GMT
References: <1093@goofy.UUCP> <14867@s.ms.uky.edu> <1990Apr8.003410.9841@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <4469@stpstn.UUCP> <1NT2K:Exds13@ficc.uu.net> <2536:Apr1302:34:2890@stealth.acf.nyu.edu>
Followup-To: comp.misc
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In article <2536:Apr1302:34:2890@stealth.acf.nyu.edu>, brnstnd@stealth.acf.nyu.edu writes:
> In article <1NT2K:Exds13@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>   [ in reference to the European Community's proposed Copyright Directive ]
>> The ability to copyright program interfaces to packages takes the already
>> dubious "look-n-feel" copyrights to a new and absurd height.
> 
> That's an understatement.
> 
> For thousands of years ideas have been free. Now AT&T will be able to
> stifle all UNIX competition by copyrighting the v7 interface; Xerox and
> Apple will win their suits against Apple and Microsoft respectively on
> copyright grounds and the Presentation Manager will follow the Macintosh
> into the grave; RSA Incorporated will wallow in income from their new
> RSA encryption copyright; Chomsky will copyright half of theoretical
> computer science; and the next car you buy won't have a steering wheel.
> 
> This frightens me.
> 
> Followups to comp.misc.
> 
> ---Dan

Just in case you haven't heard (How could you NOT hear?)---

The Xerox case was thrown out on almost all counts...
Xerox can't "win" this one... they'll be lucky if they keep the copyright
on their own interface.

Presentation Manager is probably going to die, but that's because it's
a bad implementation, and deserves to...

Microsoft Windows 3.0 will take the place of PM for MS-DOS...

And you're out of your mind if you think Apple's going under... those folks
in New York who wrote those "Apple is doomed" articles were probably just
trying to get the stock price down so they could make a fortune when the
IIfx was released (a 5% increase in stock value in 6 hours...).

Try to keep up on your news reading, OK?

Chad