User interface copyright
There have been several attempts, mostly by big US software companies, to enforce patents and copyright on user interfaces. Such legal action aims to restrict the use of certain command languages or graphical user interfaces to products from one software supplier. This is undesirable because it either forces users to buy software from the company whose interface they have learned or to learn more than one interface. An analogy is often drawn with the user interface of a car – the arrangement of pedals and steering wheel etc. If each car manufacturer was forced to use a different interface this would be very bad for car users.
Following a non-jury trial, which began in early January 1987, a federal judge ruled on 1990-06-28 that keyboard commands and on-screen images produced by Lotus Development Corporation’s popular 1-2-3 spreadsheet are protected by copyright. Paperback Software International and subcontractor Stephenson Software Ltd. who lost the case, argued that the copyright applies only to the inner workings of the software. US District Judge Robert Keeton wrote that “The user interface of 1-2-3 is its most unique element and is the aspect that has made 1-2-3 so popular. That defendants went to such trouble to copy that element is a testament to its substantiality”. Defence attorneys had argued that the Lotus commands represented “instructions for a machine rather than the expression of an idea”.
Soon after this decision, on 1990-07-02, Lotus sued Borland International and the Santa Cruz Operation for producing spreadsheets (Quattro, Quattro Pro and SCO Professional) whose interfaces could be configured to look like 1-2-3’s.
(1994-11-16)
Read Also:
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- Username
noun, Computers. 1. Also called login name, logon name, sign-in name, sign-on name. a unique sequence of characters used to identify a user and allow access to a computer system, computer network, or online account. 2. the part of an email address before the @ sign. noun 1. (computing) a name that someone uses for […]
- User network interface
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- User-obsequious
jargon Emphatic form of user-friendly. Connotes a system so verbose, inflexible, and determinedly simple-minded that it is nearly unusable. “Design a system any fool can use and only a fool will want to use it.” See WIMP, Macintrash. See also user-unctuous. [Jargon File] (1999-06-27)
- User-unctuous
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