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From: nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Copyrighting Icons
Message-ID: <685@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Date: 5 Apr 88 02:08:05 GMT
References: <24@imspw6.UUCP> <1522@dataio.Data-IO.COM>
Reply-To: nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu.UUCP (Russ Nelson)
Organization: Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY
Lines: 27

In article <1522@dataio.Data-IO.COM> bright@dataio.UUCP (Walter Bright) writes:
[edited for brevity]
>How many different ways can you make a trashcan, or an arrow, in a small
>dot matrix and not have them look similar?

Not many.  If there are a limited number of ways to express an idea,
then the expression isn't copyrightable.  For better or worse, a judge
will be the judge of that.

>New software, in their efforts to find a 'different' method,
>would have to use ever more complicated methods.

That's a problem.  At the beginning of the industrial revolution, in
England, someone patented the crank.  Fortunately, our patent law was
formulated to prevent such idiocies.  Unfortunately, our laws aren't
up to dealing with the new societal revolution.

My opinion:

Software with similar look and feel can be compared to compilers of languages
with similar look and feel, and standards with similar look and feel.  We
as users have had to fight for standard languages and standard protocols.
We now have to fight for standard user interfaces.
-- 
-russ
AT&T: (315)268-6591  BITNET: NELSON@CLUTX  Internet: nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu
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