Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!ucbvax!simtel20.arpa!MRC From: MRC@SIMTEL20.ARPA (Mark Crispin) Newsgroups: net.micro.atari Subject: Re: DRI agrees to change GEM Message-ID: <12148757255.8.MRC@SIMTEL20.ARPA> Date: Sat, 5-Oct-85 15:56:45 EDT Article-I.D.: SIMTEL20.12148757255.8.MRC Posted: Sat Oct 5 15:56:45 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 6-Oct-85 06:35:46 EDT References: <2750@vax4.fluke.UUCP> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 16 It is easy to put in patents and copyrights which are complete bullsh-t. They are "valid" as long as nobody contests it. DEC still claims a patent on the PDP-10 byte instructions even though they'd lose a real court fight on it (and have failed to sue Xerox, Foonly, Tymshare, and Systems Concepts for building imitation PDP-10's). There is a difference between a patent and a copyright. What Apple apparently has is a patent, since a copyright would not prevent anybody from recreating from scratch software with the same functionality (consider the GNU effort). I seriously doubt the patent would hold up against a worthy opponent. DRI probably caved in because they want Apple as a customer. Face it, Apple, Commodore, and Atari are glorified toy companies and behave just like toy companies, not like vendors of professional equipment. Not a single idea on the Mac is original with Apple. -------