🚀 go-pugleaf

Forwarded-For: rms@ai.mit.edu

It is good news that Solbourne has decided to drop their user
interface copyright claim.  Those of you who responded to my alert by
complaining to Solbourne have helped bring about this result.  In
fact, in phone conversations with Solbourne I found a willingness to
consider the arguments against user interface copyright.  Thus, the
overall result seems to have been positive.

Solbourne and Imperial College recently posted a statement that there
was never a user interface claim.  I was surprised by this, because
last week an executive of Solbourne said to me (an exact quote), "This
is a user interface claim."  I don't think it was a false alarm;
rather, the announcement is a polite way of ending a dispute.

I am not saying this with the aim of prolonging the dispute.  Since
Solbourne thought better and dropped the claim before any real harm
was done, we ought to forgive them, forget their tentative actions,
and treat them according to their actions now.

But what we shouldn't forget is that we have won a victory.  The fact
that no one was defeated or crushed makes it all the better.  If we
can convince a Solbourne, then it is at least possible that we can
convince a Lotus--or convince Congress.