Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!sumax!polari!dsp
From: dsp@polari.UUCP (Don Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: NEW FOUNDATION ESTABLISHED TO ENCOURAGE COMPUTER-BASED COMMUNICATIONS POLICIES
Summary: Freedom of Speech / Lawsuits
Message-ID: <2198@polari.UUCP>
Date: 12 Jul 90 17:06:12 GMT
References: <5122@fernwood.mpk.ca.us> <1421@pta.oz.au>
Organization: Seattle Online Public Unix (206) 328-4944
Lines: 71

In article <1421@pta.oz.au>, major@pta.oz.au (Major) writes:
> geoff@fernwood.mpk.ca.us (Geoff Goodfellow) writes:
> 
> >[Mitch Kapor asked me to post the following]
> >NEW FOUNDATION ESTABLISHED TO ENCOURAGE COMPUTER-BASED COMMUNICATIONS
> >POLICIES
> 
> If Mitch is so concerned to protect freedom of 'communication in
> the electronic age' poerhaps he could start by pressing on his
> company (Lotus) to stop sueing enveryone who thinks that 'P' is
> a good command for 'Print you spreadsheet'.
> 
> The man's hypocracy is astounding!
> 
> Major
> major@pta.oz.au
  I assume that you're refering to the lawsuits brought by Lotus in
 response to the recent ruling that the copyright on the command 
 structure of 1-2-3 has been infringed upon.C
 
  I disagree with the Major about any hypocracy (sic). When dealing
 with patents, trademarks and copyrights the one word that I sort of
 disagree with is the "intellectual" in "intellectual property". If
 you should invent something or create a piece of art it certainly is
 the product of you intellect but many other things that you've done are
 only expressed intellectually.

  There are property laws concerning real estate and personal property. Laws
 which keep for instance a family from creating a productive farm through
 the labour of generations only to have that farm declared public property.
  I'm no computer programmer but I'd hate to spend years of my time working
 on a project and have it declared to be in the public domain or perceived
 as being in that domain so that other's will create derivitive works from
 my years of effort.
  
  I believe that the thoery concerning patents is that a basic contract 
 exists between you and the Government. In exchange for making your invention
 public in the form of the patent itself you are granted remedies in court
 should someone else use your invention and for instance degrade it's
 inherent itegrity by changing a few things. I believe that the exchange of
 information concerning the state of the art in all fields is in the requesting
 and reading of the issued patent itself.
  I know that for myself it seems quite slow to write the Patent & Trademark
 office (PTO) for a copy of a patent that has just been granted. This really
 hit home since I've been on the net but there does exist a commercial service
 which will find the most recent patent you're interested in and fax a copy to
 you.

  Free speech is one thing and admire the support of Lotus and Apple in regard
 to the recend Operation Sun Devil. Having someone steal or use your property,
 your car, your real property, your house, your personal property is something
 that I disagree with in the same way that I would hate for someone to steal
 the product of my mind, soul, knowledge and "intellect".

  Perhaps the problem is that programmer's don't view themselves as the
 artists that they are.

                              Don

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