Ugly Huge BSD Monster

[Mark Murray]

Bill Moran writes:
> > Lawsuits are how you _defend_, not how you _conduct_.
> 
> The crux of the problem, however, is where the fine line between defend
> and conduct lie.

Sure :-). I am well prepared to concede that there is a rich field
of Grey Area(tm) to play in.

> If I write a program that does something totally unique (hard to imagine
> in this day and age, but bear with me) and market it.  Then somone else
> makes a program that does the exact same thing (although, written from
> scratch), have they violated my rights?  Should I defend myself?

Legally, if you have patented your idea/code, then the priveliges
granted to you (others may call those "rights" ;-) ) would suggest you
have a defendable case.

> In my opinion, no.  They're allowed to write competing software.

In the absence of a patent, sure.

> If I write this program, and someone reverse engineers part or all of
> my code (or steals the source, etc) and markets that, should I defend?
> In my opinion, yes.  In that case, they are stealing my work, not my
> ideas.

DMCA.

If I reverse engineer your work, and then write _completeley_new_
and better code to do the same thing, where are we?

If I take apart your mousetrap to see what oil you use on the hinges,
where are we?

If I do chemical analysis of your mousetrap's spring to improve the 
spring in my gronkulators, where are we?

> Altough other people would consider me wrong for my opinion on the second
> circumstance.  Right or wrong, these differences of opinion are the
> basis for this whole argument and many others that are relevent to our
> profession.

Agreed. Where abominations like DMCA, and lesser abominations like
software patents fail is where liars^Wlawyers make their livings,
and where disreputable "inventors" grovel in their shite for easy
money.

M
--
Mark Murray
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