On Tue, Mar 04, 2003, Eli Billauer wrote about "Re: [Fwd: BSA Accuses OpenOffice ftp sites of piracy]": > But the problem is not that some people want a WYSIWYG word processor, > or spreadsheets. Micro$oft doesn't have any rights on the WYSIWYG > concept. But if you call an application KWord and make it look like > MS-Word, you've made a statement about its origins.
Excuse me? M-w.com lists the phrase "word processor" as dating back to 1970, which is a good 15 years before the first version of MS-Word I know of. Microsoft has no copyrights on the generic English word "word", and while calling a word processor, of all names, "Kword" may be strange - it is certainly not illegal. And about "looking like MS-Word", do you also say that Mazda cars (say) stole something from Ford, because Ford had the concept of a car, with four wheels and an engine, before Mazda? Since when is honestly producing competing products to successful products illegal, or even immoral? Next thing we know, MS will be chasing offices not using MS-Office, because, obviously "You can't call yourself an office if you don't run MS-Office!" :) -- Nadav Har'El | Tuesday, Mar 4 2003, 1 Adar II 5763 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |----------------------------------------- Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Sign in zoo: Do not feed the animals. If http://nadav.harel.org.il |you have food give it to the guard on duty ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
