> From: Stan Halpin <[email protected]> > > Tom, do you remember the iconic bluebird photo 10-15 years ago? It showed up > in calendars, posters, postcards, etc. I remember an > interview with the photographer - he earned enough from that one shot to > build a home in the woods, full studio and darkroom, etc. What if > Kodak early on had said "that shot has great moneymaking potential; we'll > copy it and use our superior marketing (and lower pricing) to > compete with you for sales of that image. And oh by the way, if you don't > like it, then our film division won't sell you any more film. > > I think that is a close analogy to what you are suggesting that Samsung > should do. Yes, copyright and patent rights are not identical, but > the principle is the same; theft of intellectual property is not a good thing. > > stan >
Hi Stan, I'm all for intellectual property rights. Apple and Xerox Parc have some potential issues as well then. I'm sure some will differ, and I'm not trying to start a debate by any means, as I'm truly no authority on the subject. I'll readily admit my statements are made upon the white-washed summarizations of the legal proceedings and not the gory legal or technical details. >From what I've read some of Apple's issues are with shapes,radius of rounded corners and look of icons. My general opinion is you can patent an implementation of an idea, or particular code behind a technology, but not an idea. Again, I'm not a lawyer and don't have intimate knowledge. If Samsung actually stole intellectual property then I agree they should pay. If they said 'hey that's a good idea; let's do something like that' and then made their own block-buster product, that's the free market. I may recall the bluebird photo you're referring to (or it's my imagination). In any case Kodak or anyone else with a camera was certainly able to go out and take as many bluebird photos as they wanted to and compete with the guy and that would have been fair and legal, as long as they weren't using the bluebird image he took. I don't think Kodak theoretically refusing to sell film is the same issue as what I'm suggesting. I'm suggesting Samsung could recoup the penalty at some future time. What I'm against is a world where we only have Fords, Apple iPads, Apple smart phones, Samsung TV's, Frigidaire refrigerators,,, you get my drift, to choose from, and from what I can see that's the kind of world Apple would like it to be. Tom C. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
