Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!nosc!cod!bmarsh From: bmarsh@cod.NOSC.MIL (William C. Marsh) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc Subject: Re: Why do people pirate software? Message-ID: <2053@cod.NOSC.MIL> Date: 13 Aug 90 19:50:19 GMT References: <1462fullerr@yvax.byu.edu> <2847@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU> <2051@cod.NOSC.MIL> <32634@cup.portal.com> Reply-To: bmarsh@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (William C. Marsh) Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego Lines: 47 In article <32634@cup.portal.com> Ordania-DM@cup.portal.com (Charles K Hughes) writes: > Hmmm...SEA vs Philip Katz, Apple vs Microsoft, Lotus vs Paperback, etc. > Flame...how long have you been in Timbuktoo? :) > SEA vs Philip Katz - I believe this was actually a trademark battle [do you >know that using the ARC(TM) logo as a file extender is illegal? ] So, PK has come up with ZIP, which is a better, faster, and more compact storage method. Also note, this was settled out of court, so no legally binding decision was made from this action. Using 'ARC' is only illegal if your 'ARC' file is not compatible with the 'ARC' utility from SEA. It seems simple enough to get SEA's approval, though I dislike having to give SEA any source code. You have to remember, in cases that are settled 'out of court', that no law was applied (or tested). In SEA v. PKWARE, PK (i believe) gave in because of other things. > Apple vs Microsoft - Microsoft licensed the MAC interface, Apple got ticked >when they used it for Windows & PM. And it's still in court. It would appear that Microsoft will win, based on the current round of judgements in the case. I think Apple still hasn't shown what is in Windows v2.0 that was not in Windows v1.0 that was 'invented' by Apple. (i.e. there is no trashcan in Windows) > Lotus vs Paperback - look and feel crapola (some merit to this suit, but >so little that the suit did a great deal more harm to the community at >large than Paperback did to Lotus). The Judge didn't mention 'look and feel', just that the Lotus menu system was unique and non-obvious, not that the spreadsheet has rows and columns. IMHO, I think that all three of the cases were based on greed, and only greed. Instead of continuing to develope and improve their software, the companies decided to use the courts to protect their market advantage, which I think is wrong. Anything new and unique (Which SEA's ARC isn't, BTW) should be rewarded with copyrights or patents. Bill -- Bill Marsh, Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego, CA {arpa,mil}net: bmarsh@cod.nosc.mil uucp: {ihnp4,akgua,decvax,dcdwest,ucbvax}!sdcsvax!nosc!bmarsh "If everything seems to be coming your way, you're probably in the wrong lane."