Moses DeJong wrote:
>
> On Mon, 18 Jan 1999, Martin Little wrote:
>
> > Because they fear Microsoft will use it as an excuse?
>
> Have you not heard of the "Look and Feel" lawsuits of the 80's?
> In fact it was Apple who sued Microsoft claiming that win3.1
> stole Mac's LAF for a GUI interface. The result was Apple lost
> because you can not copyright a look and feel. End of story.
> You can sue anyone for anything and you do not have to have
> any legal basis for doing so. That is the realy issue here.
I think there is a difference of degree here.
Apple sued over various `concepts', including
icons on the desktop and the trashcan idea.
As part of the settlement, Microsoft removed
various of these concepts from Win 3.0 when it
was released, including a trashcan on the
desktop. They went back in in Win95 (Microsoft
presumably thought they were much bigger now
and could bully Apple back ... whatever.)
Making an exact replica of a windowing toolkit
is different from just using concepts and ideas.
It may steal or replicate artwork and good
design from the original, not merely concepts
and may even be regarded as passing off - a
severe offense.
Besides, Microsoft have very deep pockets and
could afford to launch a lawsuit even if there
was only a slight chance of victory just to
put pressure on Sun and to stir controversy
over the Java platform.
Rich.
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