Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!adobe!greid From: greid@adobe.com (Glenn Reid) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: Request for Postscript display for a Sun Message-ID: <1089@adobe.UUCP> Date: 18 Aug 89 18:24:35 GMT References: <4163@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> <17139@ut-emx.UUCP> <12039@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> Sender: news@adobe.COM Reply-To: greid@adobe.COM (Glenn Reid) Distribution: usa Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View Lines: 153 In article <12039@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> cjc@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (Chris Calabrese[mav]) writes: > Let me assure you, NeWS is not derived from Display PostScript but was done > independantly by Sun using the Red Book as a guide. You're right, NeWS is not derived from Display PostScript. They are different and from different origins. As a friend of mine at Sun once put it, it was a "historical accident." To say that NeWS was developed before Display PostScript is a little misleading, perhaps, since one precursor to PostScript (JaM) was originally developed for displays, back when John Warnock was at Evans and Sutherland. Also, the first business plan for Adobe involved building publishing workstations, not printers, so it has been under technology development for a long time, although the product development effort is more recent. > Originally, Adobe > licenced the PostScript name to Sun because NeWS was fully Red Book > conformant, Just to make things clear, Adobe did not license the PostScript name to Sun, and NeWS was not fully Red Book conformant as of version 1.1, but it's pretty close, I think. >but has since refused to let Sun use the name due to NeWS not being compatible >with Display PostScript (read - NeWS came before Display PostScript). >So far, Sun has used the name PostScript anyway. >... >In any event, you certainly don't have to talk to Adobe. In fact, they'll >probably refuse to talk to you about it. I don't think the word "refuse" ever comes up in our dealings with Sun, and despite rumors, flamage, and the healthy natural phenomenon of competition, Sun and Adobe get along just fine. In fact, we're glad that Sun has the vision to support ideas like PostScript so thoroughly. If you call Adobe and ask about NeWS, the person you talk to may or may not be familiar with it, but if they are, they would probably just refer you to Sun. We wouldn't refuse to talk to you about it; that's silly. Enclosed below is the full text of Adobe's statement on Copyright and Trademark Rights, which I have been given by our legal Counsel. This is provided for information and to help illuminate any of the darker corners of understanding the trademark issues surrounding the name PostScript. If you have any questions concerning the use or copying of the Copyrighted Material, or if you have questions concerning the proper use of the trademark PostScript, please address your inquiry to: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Attn: Legal Department, 1585 Charleston Road, P.O. Box 7900, Mountain View, CA 94039-7900. Glenn Reid Adobe Systems ------------------ enclosure ------------------ The general idea of utilizing a page description language is in the public domain. Anyone is free to devise his own set of unique commands that constitute a page description language. However, Adobe Systems Incorporated owns the copyright in the list of commands and the written specifications for Adobe's PostScript language. Thus, these elements of the PostScript language may not be copied without Adobe's permission. In addition, Adobe owns the trademark "PostScript." Adobe will enforce its copyrights and trademark rights; however, Adobe does not intend to exclude anyone: from writing programs in the PostScript language; from writing drivers for the PostScript language; or from writing interpreters for the PostScript language. Adobe's intent is to: (1) maintain the integrity of "PostScript" as a trademark, so that users and the public will not be confused; (2) to enable the public to distinguish between Adobe's PostScript page description language and other page description languages; and (3) to enable the public to distinguish between Adobe's PostScript interpreter and other interpreters capable of interpreting the PostScript page description language. Adobe gives permission to anyone to copy its copyrighted list of commands to the extent necessary to use the PostScript page description language to write programs in the Postscript language and to write drivers that issue PostScript language commands. The only condition of such permission is that anyone who uses the copyrighted list of commands in this way must include an appropriate copyright notice. This limited right to copy the copyrighted list of commands is given by virtue of Adobe's public statements and no written confirmation by Adobe is a condition of such use. However, Adobe will provide a written confirmation to anyone who requests one. This limited right to copy the copyrighted list of commands does not include a right for such users to copy the PostScript Language Reference Manaual, the PostScript Language Tutorial and Cookbook, or the programming code in Adobe's PostScript interpreter, in whole or in part, in any manner except as set forth above. A copyright license is available from Adobe for anyone who wishes to write an interpreter using Adobe's copyrighted list of commands. Such a license must be in writing. The trademark PostScript should only refer to the page description language which Adobe originated and controls. Adobe also uses PostScript to identify its interpreter; no permission is given to anyone to use PostScript as a trademark for any software product or manual. Anyone who refers to the trademark PostScript nust also do so in accordance with Adobe's then current Trademark Reference Manual. The trademark Postscript may not be used to refer to a page description language which differs from the page description language that Adobe originated and controls. For example, if an interpreter supports a subset or a superset of the Adobe page description language, it may not be referred to as PostScript-compatible; however, a licensee may state that its interpreter supports a subset or a superset, as the case may be, of Adobe's PostScript page description language. In article <12039@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> cjc@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (Chris Calabrese[mav]) writes: >In article <17139@ut-emx.UUCP>, lihan@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Bruce Bostwick) writes: >> In article <4163@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> fowser@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Scott Fowser) writes: >> >Does anybody know a site to ftp code for displaying Postscript >> >programs on a Sun graphics display? >> >> Get NeWS -- it's a complete desktop system based on Display PostScript. >> With that, using the command 'psh' will give you good PS debugging. >> Don't know exactly where to get it, because I can't seem to recall if it's >> proprietary or not -- you may have to talk to Adobe ... > >I don't know how the idea started spreading that NeWS is a form >of Display PostScript. The first time I saw a reference to this idea was >in a Byte article. > >Let me assure you, NeWS is not derived from Display PostScript but was done >independantly by Sun using the Red Book as a guide. Originally, Adobe >licenced the PostScript name to Sun because NeWS was fully Red Book conformant, >but has since refused to let Sun use the name due to NeWS not being compatible >with Display PostScript (read - NeWS came before Display PostScript). >So far, Sun has used the name PostScript anyway. > >In any event, you certainly don't have to talk to Adobe. In fact, they'll >probably refuse to talk to you about it. Contact your Sun sales rep. >I believe the cost of NeWS1.1 binaries is around $100, so it shouldn't break >your pocketbook. X/NeWS, due to come out "any time now", will >support X11 and NeWS simultaneously and without performance degredation >(relative to what I don't know). >-- >Name: Christopher J. Calabrese >Brain loaned to: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ >att!ulysses!cjc cjc@ulysses.att.com >Obligatory Quote: ``Anyone who would tell you that would also try and sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.''