Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!isi.edu!venera.isi.edu!jas From: jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc Subject: Re: A sad day... Message-ID: <17205@venera.isi.edu> Date: 18 Mar 91 23:25:57 GMT References: <46878@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <448@oneb.UUCP> Sender: news@isi.edu Distribution: na Organization: USC-ISI Lines: 46 In-reply-to: kmcvay@oneb.UUCP's message of 13 Mar 91 19:18:13 GMT In article <448@oneb.UUCP> kmcvay@oneb.UUCP (Ken McVay) writes: >>GeoWorks? It has a "Mac look-and-feel". Unless they licensed the rights >>from Apple, I think that Apple doesn't care because people aren't buying >>GeoWorks instead of their overprice Macs. > >Speaking simply as a "user", this whole issue seems childish, although >I can readily understand the financial side of it. How far will we go >with "look and feel" crap before we wake up? > >My RCA TV has the l&f of all other tv's >My Chrysler has the l&f of a Model T Ford >My Eltech 9870 has the l&f of an IBM PC, which has the l&f of my >venerable Osborne-1, which........margarine has the l&f of butter, >which has the l&f of pork fat. > These are all physical objects -- hard capital. A piece of software is *intellectual* property. It costs you very little to steal intellectual property, as opposed to physical property. >So what? How many different formats can you produce for a spreadsheet >and still HAVE a spreadsheet? Different formats; different programs. You won't get sued if you have a different format. However, steal someone's user interface, then you might... Theft is theft. There are intellectual property rights, and that is what this is all about. >Let'em stand or fall in the marketplace by the quality (or, in the case >of Loutus, lack of same) of the application's performance... So, what you're advocating is this: let no one reap the benefits of R&D. Just sit back until someone else comes out with a great idea, then clone it and reap the benefits. Well, that's great... but who's going to eat the R&D in the first place, if they don't get the reap the benefits? -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey A. Sullivan | Senior Systems Programmer jas@venera.isi.edu | Information Sciences Institute jas@isi.edu | University of Southern California