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From: glenn@welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason)
Newsgroups: comp.databases,misc.legal
Subject: Re: dBASE -- copyright invalidation
Keywords: dBASE, dBase, Dbase, database, copyright
Message-ID: <1991Apr9.221323.10335@welch.jhu.edu>
Date: 9 Apr 91 22:13:23 GMT
References: <1991Mar21.221312.4815@oracle.com> <1991Apr3.011116.15228@dbase.A-T.COM>
Reply-To: glenn@welchlab.welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason)
Organization: Welch Medical Library, Baltimore
Lines: 44

In article <1991Apr3.011116.15228@dbase.A-T.COM> awd@dbase.A-T.COM (Alastair Dallas) writes:
>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.  
[ stuff deleted ]
>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.

I'll bet Fox Software would be in disagreement with this statement. At
the very least this ruling increases the competition between A-T and Fox
and grants Fox clear sailing in their attempts to increase their share of
the PC database market; at the most it gives Fox major momentum in establish-
ing their product as superior database package and opens the door for other
software developers to bring their dBASE-compatible language products to
market. In my opinion ... that *is* an 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 
                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^
This guy seems pretty confident that A-T will eventually win this case.
Any appeal has a lesser chance of being overturned than the original case
or the last appeal ... I hope you're not holding your breath waiting for
the courts to send a favorable finding your way.

>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).  

This is probably true for the most part. It is probably the combination of
other vastly superior and evolving PC database packages such as Fox Pro,
Paradox, Clarion, etc. and the inability of A-T to bring a stable, efficient
database product to market that will eventually bring about its downfall.

Just my opinions, of course, flame by email only please,
Glenn