Re: No longer free to write your own software either

["Arkain" <rwking@no.usa.spam.net>]

Thia is a real Pandora's Box, that I knew thy would open but wish they
didn't. Unless I'm mistaken, this case has set the prescident that entity B
cannot produce a "clean-room" clone of software written and/or copyrighted
by entity A. Does this mean we will get to see Claris(or whoever bought them
out) sue Corel & Microsoft over the right to produce text-based word
processors? This may seem inane, but since MS Word is directly derived from
the source code of the original text-based version...


I guess we can also expect to see (whoever it was) that copyrighted the 1st
hand-to-hand combat fighting game sue Midway, Capcom, Namco, and several
others for Mortal Combat, Street Fighter, etc... since they are effectively
conceptual clones. Should we also expect to see ID software suing the makers
of the James Bond and Turok serieses?

Seems to me that the prescident enforces a monopoly on gaming concepts. Now
unless I'm mistaken, the Sherman Antitrust Act and several revisions of it
and other laws expressly forbid such occurances. Otherwise, why would M$
have lost it's case?

Scary thought... Is M$ going to sue Borland over the RAD interface thing
since VB preceeded Delphi/Builder? I hope that next time a case like this
comes up, some wise judge will rule against it.

Arkain