On Aug 22, 2012 5:14 PM, "Ken D'Ambrosio" <k...@jots.org> wrote: > > While, on the face of things, I agree that there are *more* lawsuits nowadays, > part of me points out that there's a whole lot more at stake than there was, > say, 30 years ago. Here are some lawsuits from down the ages that come to > mind: > > Ashton Tate (dBase) vs. FoxPro > Hayes vs. Everyone Else > Lotus vs. Borland > Apple vs. Microsoft > SEA vs. PKWare > > The interesting thing here is that in the three suits where the plaintiffs were > clear victors in the courtroom (Hayes, Lotus, SEA), they eventually lost in the > court of public opinion -- SEA almost overnight. (SEA was the creator of the > old .ARC file compression format; they sued on violation of look and feel when > PKWare came out with a much faster version that -- gad-zooks! -- used similar > command line parameters.
And lifted source code from ARC, which its copyright did not allow. Because of that loss, Phil Katz made sure the Zip format was freely copyable. >Furor was quick and lethal to SEA; .ZIP supplanted it > within, I'd say, two months -- and only that long because of magazine lead zip also compressed more w/ less cpu. When most were on 286en transmitting over 1200 or 2400 baud, 5% smaller, faster, made it worth converting the whole BBS's 200mb of files, even if it took a few days. Many converted to lha when that came out. > times, etc.) Apple mostly lost, but you'll note that the MS Garbage Can > disappeared from the Windows 1.0 desktop after that. And dBase just plain I'd say apple is doing ok now. > *lost*: apparently, it's best to ensure you (rightfully) own copyright to your > own product before suing others for violating it. A lesson SCO would have done > well to have remembered. > > So, I guess my point is that even winning litigation doesn't ensure a victory > in the marketplace. I'll be curious to see what happens to litigation-happy > Apple as time goes on. > > -Ken > > > On Wed, 22 Aug 2012 07:34:04 -0400 Jerry Feldman <g...@blu.org> wrote > > > On 08/21/2012 08:10 AM, Ben Scott wrote: > > > On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 9:01 PM, Bill Sconce <sco...@in-spec-inc.com> > > > wrote: >> "[I]t's WWIII in the patent universe. Remember how we used to > > > say >> that no one would ever be so foolish as to start a patent war, > > >> because it'd be destructive to everyone in it? Guess what? Apple > > >> decided on going thermonuclear, and here we are. Talk about your > > >> infinite loop. How wasteful is this? > > > Very apt. And unfortunate. :-( The mobile tech field is an > > > absolute warzone right now. Just about everybody is suing just about > > > everybody else. It's a disaster. It's not helping the industry, nor > > > the public, or even the companies themselves. > > > > > > I seem to recall a headline on /The Onion/, "Google Accidentally > > > Sues Themselves". > > These suits are very complex but interesting. I had been watching the > > SCO lawsuits since the very beginning. The warm body of SCO is still > > trying to revive SCO vs. IBM, even after filing for chapter 7. The > > Apple vs. Samsung is becoming rather nasty. And, of course there is > > Oracle vs. Google. I prefer looking at Groklaw on these issues because > > PJ and her successor are both legal professionals and generally report > > it correctly. > > > > -- > > Jerry Feldman <g...@blu.org> > > Boston Linux and Unix > > PGP key id:3BC1EB90 > > PGP Key fingerprint: 49E2 C52A FC5A A31F 8D66 C0AF 7CEA 30FC 3BC1 EB90 > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
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