Microsoft & Moore

[hoov]

> From: James Devine <jdevine at popmail.lmu.edu>
> Michael H. wrote:
> >the time to stop Microsoft was when it copied Apple's operating
> >system...Apple took Microsoft to court in what was known as the
> >'look & feel' lawsuit...Apple said it looks like ours, it feels
> >like ours, it is ours...Apple lost...Microsoft should have
> >been forced to make their own...
> -I understand that Apple got _its_ OS from a Stanford/government venture
> Apple stole the look and feel (and a key designer) from Xerox's Palo Alto
> Research Center (PARC) which also pioneered the use of the mouse, windowed
> environments, word processing and other innovations on the personal computer.
> most of those innovations like the mouse and windowed environments were
> funded by the federal government to the tune of millions of dollars 
> (the whole "look and feel" copyright idea is the worst threat to
> free speech and open computing imaginable.)
> --Nathan

good points both...I should have prefaced my comment by saying that in
the framework of existing US law: "the time to stop ..."  I've no
desire to suggest approval of either private appropriation of public
largesse or of possessive individualism...Michael Hoover (in Florida
where we are suffering through the 3rd day of our first ever state-wide
air pollution alert because of dangerous ozone levels - the result
of growth, more cars, higher energy usage, and particular atmospheric
conditions)