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From: astieber%csd4.milw.wisc.edu@csd1.milw.wisc.edu (Anthony J Stieber)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: RE: PK361.EXE
Message-ID: <3656@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 12 Aug 88 05:59:20 GMT
Sender: ibmbin@bsu-cs.UUCP
Reply-To: astieber@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Anthony J Stieber)
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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To:  comp-binaries-ibm-pc
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In regards to the settlement:
      The agreement between SEA and PKWare implies that a file format can be
   copyrighted and that it is illegal for any unauthorized entity to make use
   of the file format either in reading or writing it. Of course those people
   who use the authorized programs may make use of them (esp. if they send in
   some dough).

     Now what if Lotus decided that the .WKS and .WK1 file formats
   were copyrighted (SEA copyrighted their stuff last year) and sued all
   companies that produced programs compatible with their formats.  They would
   probably win (they have the money and the precendent via SEA vs PKWare).

     Next Word Perfect Corp. sues their competitors.

     Microsoft sues Borland and every other compiler publisher for infringing
   their .EXE file format (due to "justice" they would likely win the .COM
   suit as well despite it being a CP/M format).

     Then Microsoft sues the alternative operating systems houses (PC-MOS,
   Concurrent DOS, VM386, various UN*X/MS-DOS compatibility packages)
   for infringing the .EXE format AND the disk format.

     Next file transfer protocols are copyrighted (What is a file? A stream
   of bytes. What is a file transfer? A stream of bytes { Weeellll, not quite
   but what do the courts know by now?})

     What if Apple copyrights the Macintosh file formats or worse patents
   them? For those of you not familiar with HFS/MFS there is a forked file with
   data in one fork and program resources (icons,dialogue boxes etc.) in the
   other. This could cripple the development of Window/Icon/Mouse/Pulldown
   menu (WIMP) systems.

     This concept of legally protected file formats (byte stream protocols)
   could make it easy for IBM to produce machines for which third party
   peripherals would nonexistant ( You want a keyboard that didn't come from
   Hell? Tough luck. IBM holds the patent on the keyboard serial line protocol)
.
   Same thing applies to all other peripherals:
     external drives
     internal drives (hard disks, big bucks)
     modems
     mice
     monitors
     et cetera

Super
Human
In
Training

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