Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!samsung!usc!ucla-cs!math.ucla.edu!sonia!denison
From: denison@sonia.math.ucla.edu (Alan Denison)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Boycott NeXT offerings that include a free copy of Lotus Improv
Message-ID: <565@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 19 Oct 90 07:01:52 GMT
References: <123663@linus.mitre.org>
Sender: news@MATH.UCLA.EDU
Reply-To: denison@math.ucla.edu (Alan Denison)
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
Lines: 65

In article <123663@linus.mitre.org> ramsdell@mitre.org writes:
>Enclosed are some corrections to my initial plead, and pointers to
>well thought out papers on the issue of interface copyrights.
>
>Lotus is trying to make it illegal to write software even partially
>compatible in its behavior with existing software.  If you write a
>program that does a similar job, they will sue you.  The threat is
>real; Lotus is currently suing Borland over Quattro not because it
>implements the same interface, but because you can customize the
>interface to emulate Lotus 1-2-3!
>
>By distributing promotional copies of Lotus Improv, NeXT Inc. is
>aiding and abiding a company that, in my opinion, engages in
>monopolistic practices.  I urge you to refuse to buy NeXT offerings
>that include a free copy of Lotus Improv.  In practice, this means
>simply waiting until 1991 to place your order.  If we do not take a
>stand now and make our concerns clear to the NeXT management, they may
>be the next to sue.
>
>Some of the responses to my initial plead revealed enormous ignorance
>about the issue of interface copyright.  I hope you all will read this
>year's November and May issues of the Communications of the ACM.  An
>informed and active user community is our only hope for protection
>against forces of greed.
>
>John D. Ramsdell
>
>P.S.  To the best of my knowledge, The MITRE Corporation does not have
>a policy on interface copyright, so the opinions expressed within do
>not represent the official policy of my company.

You are still wrong about the way that Lotus Improv is being distributed.
It is my understanding that when you receive a NeXTstation or an upgrade
board you will then send in some kind of certificate or coupon to Lotus
and then they will send you a free copy of a fully working version of 
Improv as soon as it ships.  Given this information it is likely that one
will not have to send this coup to Lotus.  If you really feel like buying
a NeXT (which is a great idea by the way), you want a spreadsheet, and you
want to boycott Lotus products maybe you should look at Ashton-Tate's
PowerStep.  It is not constructive for you or anyone else to bash NeXT for
a promotion that is completely in another companies hands.

I agree that interface technology should be allowed to be shared instead of
owned by companies.  I do not agree, though, that Lotus intends to do this
with their products for the NeXT.  I have heard (rumor only) that they 
plan on making it possible to allow other applications (besides Improv) to
interface with their graphing tool (Presentation Builder) in the future by
releasing some kind of object interface tool.  Also, I've seen programs 
adopting interface techniques used by different companies with the NeXT
development society (e.g. Inspector Panels).  

I suggest that you let Lotus start anew with their applications on the NeXT.
Maybe we can start boycotting programs on the NeXT when someone starts to
claim that they were the first person to create a 3-D rotating pop-up    
heirarchical menu and they are going to sue everyone else who adopted it.
I don't see this happening, though.

Allen Denison, NeXT Campus Consultant for UCLA

p.s. My views do not necessarily represent those of NeXT or UCLA.

D
p.s.  My views do not re
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plan on allowing their