Xref: utzoo misc.legal:4308 comp.sys.ibm.pc:13575 comp.sys.mac:14333 comp.sys.apple:4824
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!olson
From: olson@cs.rochester.edu (Thomas J. Olson)
Newsgroups: misc.legal,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.apple
Subject: Icon ownership (was Re: Apple Challenges...)
Message-ID: <7987@sol.ARPA>
Date: 23 Mar 88 18:09:21 GMT
References: <5480@well.UUCP> <4092@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <1719@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu> <1454@csib.csi.UUCP>
Reply-To: olson@cs.rochester.edu (Thomas J. Olson)
Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept, Rochester, NY
Lines: 44
Keywords: Apple HP Microsoft Windows OS/2 New Wave Frivolous Litigation
Summary: Apple doesn't own those icons

In article <1454@csib.csi.UUCP> jwhitnel@csib.UUCP (Jerry Whitnell) writes:
>..................Anyone who wants to understand what the suit is really
>about should first read the complaint (which some posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc)
>and then get ahold of the March 22, 1988 issue of MacintoshToday.  On the
>front page is a pair of pictures, one of the Apple Macintosh DeskTop, the
>other is of NewWave by HP running under Microsoft Windows.  One can see
>from the pictures that New Wave is derived from Apple's Finder.  Some
>obvious  ripoffs are the icons used for directories (file folders with
>tags), documents (a page with the corner folded) and the notorious trash
>can (called a Waste Basket in New Wave, but it even has the same lid that
>Apple's trash can does).

Pardon my obtuseness, but was the above posting tongue in cheek?  If not:
I've never used a Mac in anger, but I've used the Star environment on a
Xerox Dandelion.  It was some years ago, but...
I well remember the grey file drawer that represented the network file server...
from which you could extract tagged file folders, aka subdirectories...
from which you could extract pages with a folded corner, aka documents...
Star didn't have a trash can, though its successor (Viewpoint) does.  Like most
Star features, the trash can comes from Smalltalk.  Oh, how I yearn to see
Apple sue Xerox over that trash can!

/* begin snide remark */
Come to think of it, Star even had the wimpy non-preemptive scheduler
and lack of memory protection that the Mac made famous.  
/* end snide remark */

Now, it's true that when I used Star the Mac had been out for 2 years or
so.  Knowing Xerox' corporate culture, though, I can't picture them 
leaping quickly to appropriate a clever idea from some small operation
in Cupertino.  Therefor, I assume these ideas were indigenous.

What really burns me up about this whole deal is that I was nerving myself
for the hideous expense of buying a Mac 2.  Now I can't -- my morals
are flexible, but not THAT flexible.

--Tom Olson (olson@cs.rochester.edu)

>
>Jerry Whitnell				Been through Hell?
>Communication Solutions, Inc.		What did you bring back for me?
>						- A. Brilliant

PS I really like that .signature quote.  Who's A. Brilliant?