Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!labrea!agate!garnet!weemba
From: weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs
Subject: Re: Apple boycott, etc.
Message-ID: <14751@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 27 Sep 88 08:15:14 GMT
References: <8809262106.AA09340@serendip.kla.com>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Distribution: gnu
Organization: Brahms Gang Posting Central
Lines: 24
In-reply-to: cohesive!kla!serendip!pml@SUN.COM (PM Lashley)

Is it time for a gnu.policy or gnu.copyleft list???

In article <8809262106.AA09340@serendip.kla.com>, cohesive!kla!serendip!pml@SUN (PM Lashley) writes:
>							`An icon depicting
>a file folder' for example, would be MUCH too vague.  In fact, I suspect that
>any natural language definition of an icon or screen layout would be too
>vague.  Specific bitmaps should be copyrightable with some degree of variance
>allowed.  Formal language (i.e. PostScript) definitions should be allowed.

Note that copyright law does not protect against independent recreation.
That is, if out of thin air I wrote a word-for-word copy of some Stephen
King novel--and I could convince a judge and jury that I have never seen
or heard nigh of Stephen King all these years--then my version would be
an independent work of art, and separately copyrightable!

So I don't think it would be *possible* to effectively copyright some-
thing as basic as an icon depicting a file folder.  Hire a starving art
major who has never used a Mac before, and get them to churn out icons.
And to minimize any Apple derived connection that might be used against
you in a later court case, boycott all Apple products starting now.

These considerations don't apply to trademarks or patents.

ucbvax!garnet!weemba	Matthew P Wiener/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720