[imp] What is JAWmail? How ot related to IMP?

[Michael M Slusarz]

Quoting "Roger B.A. Klorese" <rogerk@queernet.org>:

| UI design is a technical skill and an intellectual invention, just as 
| much as coding; if you make your product look like someone else's, even 
| if you don't use a line of their code, you're exploiting their work -- 
| after all, you didn't have to make those decisions from scratch -- and 
| you should credit them for it.   Is it really that hard to understamnd?

Not necessarily, at least under U.S. law.  A case in the 80's (I believe 
Lotus and Borland were the parties) stated that UI's are not per se 
copyrightbale/protectable - in that case, either Borland or Lotus directly 
copied the menubar layout from the other program in order to make a users 
switch from one program to another less painful.  Even though the menubars 
were _exactly_ similar, and the company admitted directly copying its 
competitor, there was no copyright violation.  The basic reasoning is that 
there are only so many ways to code a UI, and a company/programmer should 
not have the right to "monopolize" all possible displays just because they 
were the first.

Unless there is something completly earthshattering about the design, or 
the UI _is_ essentially the program, copying UI elements alone is not 
enough.  It is the direct copying of code that must be analyzed, not 
the "look" or "feel" of a program.

michael

______________________________________________
Michael Slusarz [slusarz@bigworm.colorado.edu]
The University of Colorado at Boulder