Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!samalone
From: samalone@athena.mit.edu (Stuart A. Malone)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Macintosh ROM Sources
Keywords: Macintosh, ROM, sources, nuPrometheus
Message-ID: <11894@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 8 Jun 89 15:03:38 GMT
References: <1210@tnoibbc.UUCP> <2801@wheaties.ai.mit.edu>
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: samalone@athena.mit.edu (Stuart A. Malone)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 36

This has gotten out of hand.  While I agree that Apple should not be allowed a
monopoly on the Macintosh user interface, I defend their right to have the
matter decided in court.  Apple's lawsuit is not justification for a small
group of people at Apple to take the law into their own hands.  I am sure that
these same people signed a secrecy agreement when they joined the company.  If
they are dissatisfied with actions taken by the company, they can resign.  But
to simultaneously receive paychecks from Apple and illegally distribute its
copyrighted source code is the height of hypocracy.

The illegal distribution of Macintosh ROM sources serves no useful purpose.
Regardless of the outcome of the Apple/Microsoft lawsuit, the Macintosh ROM
sources ARE protected by U.S. copyright laws.  Any company or group attemping
to use these sources in a non-Apple product would be defenseless in court, and
would end up paying huge fines to Apple.  Thus the nuPrometheus League's
intention "to distribute everything that prevents other manufacturers from
creating legal copies of the Macintosh" is simply a delusion.

The Free Software Foundation is another organization that believes in the free
and wide distribution of software.  But unlike this nuPrometheus League, the
FSF does not resort to illegal tactics to promote its ideas.  In fact, the FSF
goes to great lengths to ensure that its software is free of restrictive
copyrights, and uses its own copyrights to ensure that its own software will
remain free to all who wish to use it.

I think it was a mistake that Apple was ever allowed to copyright the Macintosh
user interface in the first place.  But now that it has been done, there is no
real substitute for settling the matter in court.  A ruling in favor of
Microsoft would set a precedent that might discourage or disallow onerous "look
and feel" copyrights in the future.

As for the nuPrometheus League, I feel sorry for them.  Unfortunately, they
have reacted childishly and self-destructively to a bad situation.  I hope that
next week they still have their jobs.

				--Stuart A. Malone
				samalone@athena.mit.edu