Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!bu.edu!transfer!lectroid!ryan From: ryan@oxford.hw.stratus.com (Dan Guilderson) Newsgroups: comp.society.futures Subject: Re: Intellectual Property Message-ID: Date: 10 Aug 90 14:19:08 GMT References: <1990Aug6.052300.2514@world.std.com> <4534@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au> <82861@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Sender: usenet@lectroid.sw.stratus.com Followup-To: comp.society.futures Distribution: comp Organization: Stratus Computer Marlboro, MA Lines: 25 In-reply-to: francis@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu's message of 9 Aug 90 19:49:32 GMT In article <82861@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> francis@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (RD Francis) writes: [M&M analogy to interface issues deleted] Should company B (the newcomer) be able to make their product indistinguishable from company A's (the oldtimer) on the store shelves? No, packaging should differ. I love your M&M analogy but you went off into the weeds when you tried to distinguish between packaging and user interfaces. I don't think anyone will have a problem with copyright protections on the actual physical packaging of a product. If it's OK for a candy company to make little colored chocalate candies with the same "look-and-feel" as M&Ms then it should be OK for me to write a spreadsheet which has the same "look-and-feel" as Lotus 1-2-3. The person who put a ruler in Macwrite has no more claim to ownership of that idea than a company that makes rulers. -- Dan Guilderson ryan@oxford.hw.stratus.com Stratus Computer Marlboro, MA #include