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From: awd@dbase.A-T.COM (Alastair Dallas)
Newsgroups: comp.databases,misc.legal
Subject: Re: dBASE -- copyright invalidation
Summary: Should be email--press 'n' now
Keywords: dBASE, dBase, Dbase, database, copyright
Message-ID: <1991Apr3.011116.15228@dbase.A-T.COM>
Date: 3 Apr 91 01:11:16 GMT
References: <1991Mar21.221312.4815@oracle.com>
Organization: Ashton-Tate, Inc.
Lines: 68

The following are my personal feelings only; I am not a spokesman 
for Ashton-Tate.

In article <1991Mar21.221312.4815@oracle.com>, shobart@oracle.com (Sarah Groves Hobart) writes:
> In December 1990, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Hatter invalidated
> Ashton-Tate's copyrights on the dBASE line of products.  

No, actually I believe Judge Hatter threw out a particular case based on
his feeling that Ashton-Tate filed for copyright protection improperly.
It is not clear to me that Judge Hatter has standing to invalidate a 
copyright, nor that he was asked to.  Ashton-Tate is appealing his ruling 
of the case in question at any rate.

> 1) Do you believe that this ruling will have an effect on Ashton-Tate's
>    share of the PC database market?  If so, what effect do you think
>    it will have?

The success of dBASE has always baffled me; kind of like the success of
Prince or Smurfs.  The answers I get when I go looking are things like
the availability of third-party support, corporate standards, reliability
of the company, etc.  No offense, but I would imagine someone from 
Oracle would appreciate in particular that marketing and aggressive
sales can create market demand for software of any kind, even vaporware.

So, in this context, I don't think this lawsuit will have any impact
whatsoever.  And I certainly haven't heard of any such impact.

> 2) Do you think this ruling will have an effect on database standards in the
>    PC database market?  If so, what effect do you think it will have?

No, for the same reasons.  Ashton-Tate is extremely strong these days--
we have millions of dollars in the bank, we're making a profit and
so forth.  If this ruling threatened us with bankruptcy I can see where
corporate America would sit up and notice, but it doesn't do anything
of the kind.  We can appeal this until we win (this under the heading 
of "how much justice can you afford?").  Our copyrights, 
meanwhile, have been affirmed by the Registrar of Copyrights himself
and all existing copies of dBASE are covered by licensing agreements
with individual users.

> 3) Would knowledge of this ruling affect your decision to use or buy
>    dBASE?  If so, what effect would the knowledge have on your decision?

Of course not.  I will be interested to see the results of your 
survey, however.

> 4) Please check the newsgroup in which you first read this survey:
> 		_X_ comp.databases

I was hired by the author of dBASE, Wayne Ratliff, and I've worked 
closely with the author (administrator) of JPL/DIS, Jeb Long.  Judge
Hatter felt that because the user interface of dBASE was influenced
by looking at JPL/DIS (but not at source code) that Ashton-Tate 
should have checked the "derivative" box instead of the "original"
box on the copyright application.  By this rule, I sure hope the
copyright applications for every spreadsheet ever written checked
"derivative" (only VisiCalc and T/Maker need not apply, I guess).

If your survey shows that perceptions of dBASE in the marketplace
will be affected by this, I will be very surprised (even more so than
I am by Smurfs).  

/alastair/

-- 
|Disclaimer: I am speaking for myself, not as a spokesman for Ashton-Tate,
|which does not monitor my outbursts here.  I reserve all rights to my
|opinions in terms of commercial endorsements.