Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!sun.soe!sun.soe.clarkson.edu!nelson From: nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) Newsgroups: comp.emacs Subject: Re: ./etc/APPLE. No Free Software for Mac users. Message-ID: Date: 30 Sep 88 14:41:49 GMT References: <8809281340.AA16052@EDDIE.MIT.EDU> <664@esquire.UUCP> Sender: root@sun.soe Reply-To: nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu Organization: Clarkson University Lines: 39 In-reply-to: sbb@esquire.UUCP's message of 29 Sep 88 16:00:58 GMT In article <664@esquire.UUCP> sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) writes: It's just the same as arguing with an author, complaining that his novel shouldn't be copyrighted since you like the characters, plot, and settings so much and you wanted to write one of your own, using some of the dialog verbatim as well. The expression of the ideas in that novel is the author's intellectual property, and as such it is copyrightable. No, it's not the same. It IS the same as arguing with a hammer manufacturer that his hammer shouldn't be copyrighted since you like the color of the beryllium head and oak handle so much that you plated your steel hammer head with copper, and fashioned a plastic handle with oak grain. Novels, records, epigrams (like Ashleigh Brilliants), greeting cards, etc., ONLY have appearance. If you take away their appearence, they have nothing left. The user interface for a program is (or can be) independent of the function of the program (vis. X11 window managers, Borland's SPRINT editor [which has an Emacs mode], SQL database servers, and NARC, a full screen shell for the IBM-PC ARC program.). So a program can effectively be split into two parts -- the appearance and function. The function is (IMHO) largely unprotectable if a computer language is unprotectable. The appearance can be split into two parts also -- the look (displays) and the feel (keystroke sequences). Both of these can be designed to be configured by the user. (Sounds like Gnu Emacs to me :-) So, indeed, the appearance of a program can be protected, but it is really a moot point for those programmers that design flexible user interfaces. Microsoft chose not to, and so Apple feels that the combination of Windows and New Wave is too close to their own. -- --russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu]) To surrender is to remain in the hands of barbarians for the rest of my life. To fight is to leave my bones exposed in the desert waste.