🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1990Mar24.192730.20445@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu> topgun@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Chandra Bajpai) writes:
>In article <10149@wpi.wpi.edu> macman@wpi.wpi.edu (Christopher Silverberg) writes:
>>Well, as i'm sure some of you may have heard, a judge threw out all but
>>one charge against Apple Computer brought on by Xerox. And even if Xerox
>>wins the remaining charge, it will not result in any Apple financial loss.
>>This is being called a victory for Apple.
>>
>
>What charges did the judge throw out? and how does this last charge affect
>Apple?  I personally think Apple is guilty from stealing Xerox's technology.
>I also think Apple is wrong suing HP/Microsoft for something they don't own.

I'm not sure I see how these two views can be consistent.  Back in the
early 80's, Jobs et. al. see the Xerox workstations and conclude that
a graphical user interface would make a great computer.  They borrow
some ideas from Xerox, add some of their own, and out comes the Macintosh.
You are calling this plagiarism -- it seems to me -- and I think there
are some good arguments for this.  Nevertheless. . .

You then turn around and say that when HP and Microsoft do the same
thing, they should be able to get away with it.  This seems highly
illogical to me.  If the first case is plagiarism, then so is the second.
It also becomes a plagiarism of a plagiarism, and so I suppose we
should hope for Xerox to sue Microsoft.  Maybe we can bring technological
innovation to a complete standstill until the 21st century, by imprisoning
everyone in the courtroom.

My personal hopes, for rationality and progress, are for Xerox to lose
against Apple and Apple to lose against HP/Microsoft.  The graphical
user interface is an inspiring invention, but no one should own it, any
more than you can own the rights to automatic transmissions or the
metric system.  A good example of how idea-ownership is abused is
Polaroid fast-developing film, which no one else is allowed to sell
or improve, except of course the one corporation which happened
to think of it first.  As far as I know, Polaroid will continue to
enjoy this special status for as long as it lives.

People should not buy a Macintosh because it's the only personal
computer allowed to have that graphical user interface, but because
it's the best personal computer yet invented.  (Not flawless, mind you,
but the best nevertheless :)  For Apple to maintain its leadership,
it should be forced to compete in the world of ideas, as should everyone
else.

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"May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house."
                                                      -- George Carlin
                            \ /
Bemusedly,                   | DISCLAIMER:
  Colin Klipsch              |   This text is actually a horrendously
  UVA Astronomy Department   |   garbled excerpt from _Mating_Rituals_
  Charlottesville, Virginia  |   of_West_African_Ostriches_, Vol IV,
  cak3g@virginia.edu         |   by Davis & Griffin, 1913, pp. 134-135
____________________________/ \_______________________________________