Whoa There! Accusations are flying. First of all, it is not illegal to copy the look and feel of an interface. Unless the artistic aspect of the work may be completely separated from its functional aspect, no protection is available from copyright law! The concepts, processes, ideas, procedures, systems, operational methods, principles and discoveries are also not protected even if the work as a whole is copyrighted!
These principles were decided with lawsuits where Apple, Lotus and Xerox tried to form a legal monopoly by copyrighting a class of user interfaces. Of course they failed and as they say ... the rest is history. Imagine if Ford was able to copyright the placement of automobile foot petals! Jumping into a rental car and driving off would be quite an experience! Think about it this way: Do you really want an interface to by copyrighted? It would allow market domination of a market leader. Imagine if every software program had to find a new and unique way of saving a file. Almost every program I own works the same. You either click on the disk icon, Select File then Save or simply press the sequence [ALT]-f s. If Lotus had it their way (which in the beginning looked as if they might) the [ALT]-f s sequence could be copyrighted forcing us to learn a new sequence for each vendor's program. Futurewei (of whom I know nothing about) is not the only vendor copying the Cisco interface. Check out Avici (www.avici.com) or even the free software Zebra (www.zebra.org). As for your second accusation about this group supporting NDA violations .. trust me, there is a lot going on behind the scenes that I do not want to discuss in public. I work very close with Cisco on this issue. Every message sent through the server has a line appended to the bottom telling the reader where to report NDA violations! First time posters are sent an e-mail of which they must agree that the message is not an NDA violation. And when you join the list you are sent a list of rules, one of which strictly forbids NDA violations. Paul Borghese Warning: I am not a laywer, but I play one on GroupStudy. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Craig Columbus Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002 11:58 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Huawei routers - a.k.a. futurewei.com [7:49778] Just thought I'd comment on this.... Let me issue a disclaimer first: I've never heard of these routers until this thread. I'm only responding to the information presented in these posts. I've been, so far, unable to verify the information presented for myself. If I'm mistaken, and the product isn't a Cisco ripoff, then I apologize. With that said: Am I the only one who finds it troubling that this company has, apparently, copied Cisco's proprietary designs and is selling them as their own? Sure they're cheaper. So is pirated software. Does it make it right to support an operation like this? These guys even ripped off Cisco's product line names. Surely there's some legal recourse for Cisco, at least in the USA. I guess I'm bothered because this group is so anti-NDA violation, anti-software piracy, etc....and then when something like this comes out, no one bothers to speak up against it. In fact, people seem excited because they'll be able to put together a cheaper lab to practice for the CCIE lab. Personally, I don't see any difference between this and willingly buying / exchanging pirated software. If I discover that the claims are true, and that this company is only selling reverse-engineered Cisco products, I, for one, will not support them or their equipment. Just my opinion... Craig At 03:10 PM 7/26/2002 +0000, you wrote: >Hi group, > >Huawei routers were introduced into the local market sometime in the past 2 >months in an asian networking exhibition called "Communicasia". > >That's where I met the Huawei distributor whom had volunteered to provide a >demo set for me to play with (myself from an international mnc, has current >projects to revamp our LAN/WAN structure) and guess what, my boss is >requesting me to have a look at their routers ! > >The day the router came into the office, I noticed that there were no >manuals provided. After meddling with the router, I believed that there was >no need to request for one in the first place ! There will be no >requirements to load the box with IOS, it is IOS (with a bit of >differences). The whole thing was CLONED ! > >I'm not too sure about reversed-engineering but more on how Cisco is going >to protect their market dominance. With boxes selling for 30-40% cheaper, I >guess lots of ppl will be rushing off to buy it. > >Guess might as well I pack my bags for China to get a new set of >certifications. > >Ron Tan Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=49867&t=49778 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
