Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!sunc7!knauer From: knauer@sunc7 (Rob Knauerhase) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: APPLE 800 LINE (Macintosh TM) Message-ID: <1990Nov6.225320.16438@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Date: 6 Nov 90 22:53:20 GMT References: <5460@crash.cts.com> <8551@darkstar.ucsc.edu> <84@braille.uwo.ca> Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Reply-To: knauer@cs.uiuc.edu (Rob Knauerhase) Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Science, Urbana Lines: 52 In article <84@braille.uwo.ca> bill@braille.uwo.ca (Bill Carss) writes: [snip, snip] >There wasz an article in Open apple (A@ Dentral) a few years ago about this >very thing. At that time, they said that every "real" word in the english >language was owned by someone. Companies are now putting together nonsense >words for software titles etc. They also said in the next issue that the headline "Last English Word Copyrighted" was not serious... It seems many people took them seriously ("If it's in writing, it must be true!") especially since this was in a headline. > In addition, letter combinations are also >owned i.e. aa, ab, ac ... I suspect this is also false, simply because you could give everyone on the planet a unique letter combination and not need more than 7 letters (case insensitive, even). > What I don't really understand is that I was of the opinion that a >given language i.e. english, french ... was PD. How can you own something >that doesn't belong to anyone? I thought it was the same sort of thing as >Shakespeare's works - now they are PD and anyone can use them - quote etc. >without giving credit for the quote. Languages are, in a sense, "public domain." Trademarks and so on exist for the protection of the consumer (if I called my company "Apple Computer, Inc." I'd get a lot of business from people who confused me with the real thing). The root of the problem is that today's society is sue-happy. That's why Apple is willing to pay millions up front, rather than call a machine "Mac Classic" (which OBVIOUSLY isn't going to be confused with the pop or anything else) and risk getting sued for a portion or profits or other amazingly large sum. > I think this topic may bear some further research. Yup. But it's depressing work, seeing just how stupid the legal system is... One last thing, since this discussion is straying from computers to legalitites. Although you don't see it in the news reports, Apple Records started making noise about a suit when the GS was first released, since they considered anything with an Ensoniq DOC to be a musical instrument. Adding a MIDI box for the Macs just gave them more reason to sue. Rob -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Robert C. Knauerhase knauer@cs.uiuc.edu U of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign rck@ces.cwru.edu,knauer@cwru.bitnet Case Western Reserve University knauer@scivax.lerc.nasa.gov NASA Lewis Research Center " : q ! emacs " -- all the vi you need to know...