Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-winken!scooter!neoucom!wtm
From: wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Bitmaps to non-NeXT printers (was Re: Some Random NeXT Thoughts)
Summary: they're dreaming
Keywords: NeXT Speculation Cost Future Marketing
Message-ID: <1586@neoucom.UUCP>
Date: 20 Apr 89 16:44:58 GMT
References: <12017@ut-emx.UUCP> <1578@neoucom.UUCP> <8473@polya.Stanford.EDU> <4719@umd5.umd.edu>
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Lines: 34


As I mentioned previously, it is very unlikely that a shrinkwrap
agreemnent can be made legally enforcable.  There is legal
precedent of courts having nullified shrinkwrap agreements, but as
far as I know, there is no precent of a shrinkwrap agreeement being
upheld by a court.

It is extremely unlikely that Next could sucessfully claim any sort
of copyright on rendered output, even if it contains recognizable
glyphs.  To date, courts have viewed such cases the same way that
photographs in books have been treated.  All one need do is
manipulate the image slightly, and one can claim orignality .. for
example rearrage positioning of glyphs slightly.  That the image
was rendered by a program is irrelevent.  The court would likely
view computer rendering the same way that they would if Grumbach
tried to claim copyright to any painting painted using one of their
brushes.  That the image contiains recognizable glyphs is also
irrelevent, as they can not be copyrighted.  The exception would be
use of a registerd tradmark.  The reason that Adobe encrpyts the
font bitmaps in postscript is that the fonts can not be
copyrighted.

Note that the Apple versus Digital Research claim was settled out
of court, so there is no legal precedent set regarding the imfamous
trashcan icon.  Digital Research could likely have won the case,
but they lacked the money to be able to outlast Apple's legion of
lawyers in protracted rounds of legal discovery.

I suppose the same could prove to be true of users vs. Next re: the
shrinkwrap; it is unlikely that any one user could outlast Next
legal muscle, even if the user is right and Next is wrong.  As
usual, it is he or she that has the most bucks that wins.

Bill