RE: [Leica] Re: Lens Designs and history- the only take

["Kotsinadelis, Peter (Peter)" <peterk@lucent.com>]

Add Apple to that.  THeir Mac interface is really a copy of what Xerox did
years earlier.  Xerox is a great developer but a terrible marketer.
Microsoft seems to have it all.

Peter K

> ----------
> From: 	A.H.SCHMIDT[SMTP:horst.schmidt@actek.com.au]
> Reply To: 	leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Sent: 	Friday, July 30, 1999 5:12 PM
> To: 	leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: 	Re: [Leica] Re: Lens Designs and history- the only take
> 
> 
> 
> Marc James Small wrote:
> 
> > At 12:11 PM 7/30/1999 -0400, Dan Post wrote:
> > >
> > >Man is an innovator and an adaptor; we may not condone it, and we may
> even
> > >eschew it, but it is a fact of life, and human nature. I am sure that
> > >whosoever builds a better mousetrap, is going to anger the original
> builder
> > >of the mousetrap for 'stealing' the idea.
> >
> > WRONG, Dan, WRONG:  the buzzer goes off and you, shame-faced, slink to
> the
> > back of the class.
> >
> > What Voigtlander did to Petzval or what Nikon and Canon did to Zeiss and
> > Zeiss Ikon and Leitz was not a case of improving on an existing product.
> > It was a straight theft.  No improvement.  No further research.  Just a
> > direct copy.
> >
> > Again, put this in line of a professional photographer's copyright to
> his
> > work.  If someone prints one of this professional's pictures and sells
> it,
> > then he or she has committed a copyright violation and owes Big Bucks
> for
> > the infringement.  Well, that is precisely what I am speaking of.
> >
> > Yes, Canon and Nikon DID go on to do their own design work, just as
> > Voigtlander did, but this came later in all three cases.  The success of
> > all three companies was based on raw and rotten thievery and I can no
> more
> > condone this than I could the theft of one of Ted's pictures.
> >
> > Marc
> >
> 
> Marc,  You are correct in what you say about  those 3 companies . The way
> to
> prosper is to use other peoples  - paid for - knowledge.
> 
> There is another company in very recent times, which copied stole and
> thieved
> blatantly, like  never experienced before. Not a Japanese company this
> time. It
> was an American company. It was Microsoft, with Bill Gates < the richest
> thief
> in the world >. They stooped so low in the beginning. They stole various
> software products from shareware programs and also from other small
> companies.
> There where quite a few court cases about this. Now Bill Gates is the big
> shot,
> who is invited to give speeches at seminars, to tell the world how to get
> rich
> too. However there is never any mention of blatant thievery.
> Its always about looking ahead and being enterprising. I suppose he,
> Marcos,
> Suharoto and similar types looked ahed while stealing from others.
> 
> Regards, Horst Schmidt
> 
> 
>