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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF
COMS 0.00400+185.7%Dec 5 9:30 AM EST

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To: DMaA who wrote (15560)5/21/1998 12:04:00 PM
From: Moonray  Read Replies (2) of 22053
 
Disregarding the merits of the government case, I found the
arguments presented in your story specious and fallacious.

Leroy Murdock in the Orange County Register, May 17:

Microsoft does not produce steel ingots or rubber tires.
It sells copyrighted intellectual property.


The copyrighted material IS produced by MSFT. I see no difference
between tires and software as both are products from a manufacturer.
When I entered programming in '60 a debate ensued as to whether
software programs could be patented or copyrighted. The later was
court decided. One could even argue that both tires and programs
are designed to send you round and round.<g>

A government prior restraint against such an offering should be
no less chilling than if Justice stopped next week's issue of Time
magazine. . . .


Time magazine has PLENTY of competion, just go to a magazine rack.
W'98 does not. What box maker can I call that will sell me INTC-like
machine with an Operating System installed that is capable of running
MSFT Word?

Just as publishers print books by authors, Microsoft should be
free to publish software by computer programmers.


Once again here, MSFT is a manufacturer, not a publisher. A publisher
will pay an author at (or about) the time a works is published. MSFT
retains programmers on the payroll (or through contract) to produce
software. What programmer is willing to go unpaid until MSFT decides
to publish his/her work? Where is the quid pro quo?

o~~~ O
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