On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:44:38 +0100 "Joao Santos" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello, > > My name is Joao, and I was wondering if you could answer me this question: > > Can Open Office (and other free/opensource software) be accused of stealing > the intellectual property of other programs (in O.o.'s case Microsoft > Office)?? Anyone can accuse anyone else of anything at all. For example, I could accuse you of running over my dog with your car. That doesn't mean that you ran over my dog with your car. > Does OpenOffice infringe the intellectual property of Microsoft Office? I very much doubt it. The concept of a word processor go back many years before Microsoft was incorporated as a company. WordPerfect, for example, was the biggest word processing program around for many years -- it was originally written in 1982 and distributed by a company called Satellite Software International, later renamed WordPerfect, Inc. Word processing programs were originally written in the early 1970's for mainframe (green screen) computers. The concept of an electronic spreadsheet was invented by Dan Bricklin in 1979. His company was named Software Arts, Inc. Databases go back even further. The original computer (ENIAC) could process simple databases and ENIAC was completed in 1945. Incidentally, the concept of "intellectual property" doesn't really exist. There are trademarks, copyrights and patents. Each one is a different thing and each one has a different set of "rules" that vary greatly from country to country around the world. "Intellectual property" doesn't really mean anything on its own without further clarification as to what you really mean. -- MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
