🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep15.005357.14302@kithrup.COM> sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan) writes:

   [...]

   Or is perhaps your knowledge of the situation limited by your ablity to
   think and read?

   [...]

   Apple has sued uSoft and HP over "user-interface copyright violation."
   Apple is claiming that any program that looks a certain way and acts a
   certain way infringes on their "copyrights," and therefore falls under the
   various protections provided for by the various copyright laws in the US and
   other countries.

   [...]

   USL is suing BSDI and UCB, claiming that the Net/2 tape contains copyrighted
   (or trade-secret-protected) USL code.  Naturally, the BSDI and UCB folks
   disagree, and I tend to agree with them.  At the moment, however, USL is not
   claiming that any code that looks and acts like UNIX is subject to their
   control, despite what a lot of other ignorant people seem to think.  The
   worst possible interpretation of USL's actions is that, since the Net/2 code
   was developed as partial-replacements of the USL/AT&T code, line by line at
   times, then the code is based up or otherwise derived from USL/AT&T code,
   and therefore falls under USL's copyright. 

   [...]

So let me get this straight: Apple sued people, claiming their
copyrights were infringed.  This, of course, was evil and perfectly
valid grounds for a boycott.  USL is in the process of suing some
people, claiming that their copyrights were infringed.  Of course,
this is completely understandable and we shouldn't hold it against
them.

USL is trying to protect the large investment of effort and money
that was spent producing Unix. Apple was trying to protect the
large investment of time and money they spent creating their user
interface.

By the way, USL also happens to be in business to make money.  And if
you claim that one shouldn't support Apple's hardware (which may cost
less to make than they sell it for...horrors!) by porting GNU stuff to
it, then doesn't it also follow that by porting GNU to System V Unix,
you are encouraging people to buy computers whose cost includes a Unix
license from USL (and how much does a LICENSE cost to make, compared
to what it is sold for?) and indirectly supporting USL and their
litiginous ways?

And hey, the AT&T/USL block has a history of suits even worse than
Apple's-- weren't they the ones who tried that nonsense with the
backing store stuff a while back?

I'm still a little confused about the difference between USL and Apple.

Roland
--
Roland Dreier                                        dreier@math.berkeley.edu