RE: [ossig] Copyright Laws

[Uwe Heinz Rudi Dippel <Udippel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Raja Iskandar Shah
Subject: [ossig] Copyright Laws

a simple example:
in 1990, i release a software product with 4 modules.
on 1 jan 1995, someone claims ownership of 1 module. being a small time
business, i immediately stop producing.
on 2 jan 1995, someone else releases a software with my other 3 modules.

by law, i still am the copyright owner of that other 3 modules, and i
can ask the other guy to stop.

Exactly. This is why I raised the 'fruit'. (No idea how this is called in
proper English, though.) And this is what I meant: you can't reap anything
from 4 modules if one isn't yours.
Except, they are functional as well independent of module 1; or you license
module 1.
You may create a beautiful cover for the XP-CDROM and sell it on its own; as
common sense will teach us.

This fact seems blurred around here. There is no cleverness at all in
propping up a stolen thingy even with your own and honest mental efforts.
It's quite a dead business model, at least in a global market.
You had better used another module 1, from Public Domain, GPL, BSD, etc. and
added your 3 modules. At least you could go on in your production plus offer
support and support contracts. 
Now, however, the only thing you're entitled to, is to STOP someone else
just as you have to STOP yourself. The product is unavailable, module 1
owned by someone else; etc.

This is why the current system may be seen as inhibiting progress and
innovation:
That owner of module 1 stops you, you stop that someone else, the customer
gets nothing and nobody will want to continue work on either.

The only successful way to strike it rich: Write your own proprietary
software from scratch (or just buy out the owners of module 1), like what
Micro$oft did.
But that wouldn't work in any case in Malaysia, since we joined the market
much too late to be able to claim 'scratch'. Therefore no proprietary
product from the ground up possible; no Bill Gates IV in Cyberjaya. 
We might however jump into the support and services fields; add-on value. 
It is indeed an educational effort required to open the eyes of our
compatriots to such chances and opportunities.


Uwe


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