Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!lll-winken!aunro!apss!ersys!mforget
From: mforget@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Michel Forget)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Legal action against STrabble game.
Keywords: Scrabble, STrabble
Message-ID: <4cVH31w164w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca>
Date: 25 May 91 08:42:14 GMT
References: <1991May24.125450.17582@lsuc.on.ca>
Organization: Edmonton Remote Systems, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Lines: 32

> >Can't have competition can we!
> 
>      Well, sure you can.  If you want to compete, you come up
> with your own game.  It's the same as "competition" in the book
> writing field.  Nobody is stopping you from writing your own
> book.  You just can't photocopy Arthur C. Clarke's latest book
> and sell the copies to other people, and you can't just change
> the names of the characters and claim it's yours or take similar
> short cuts.  You have to "write your own book."  Hundreds of
> writers do it every year.

As a side note, it has happened in the past that an author will take a 
story, change a few superficial details, and then re-release it.  On the 
subject of "copying" the Scrabble game, there is a difference between a 
copy and an enhancement.  If the first car company took the second car 
company to court because "they copied our idea", where would we be?  
Shameless copying of ideas should not be encouraged, but I don't see any 
problems with significant enhancements.  Trivial things, like names, are 
not things I would consider to be enhancements.  As another example, take 
the Xmodem protocol.  Zmodem is far better than Xmodem, and has many 
significant enhancements, but it is still an error-preventing file 
transfer program.  If these were commercial products, would you expect 
the maker of Xmodem to take the maker of Zmodem to court?  Of course not. 
The point, I suppose, is that improving an idea significantly is 
acceptable, while copying it shamelessly is not...


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