RE: [Leica] M$ again, sigh! w

["Alexander Lee" <zone@panix.com>]

>Date: Mon, 2 Aug 1999 09:52:49 -0700
>From: "Kotsinadelis, Peter (Peter)" <peterk@lucent.com>
>Subject: RE: [Leica] M$ again, sigh! w
>
>Horst,
>
>He bought MS-DOS for $50,000 and then used it to build his empire.  THe
>original writer may have borrowed routines/ideas from UNIX which was
already
>in use for more than 10 years. Like optics design, everyone borrows from
>Everyone else.  Case in point, how many stories and movies were based on
>Romeo and Juliet?  Cinderella?  Answer:  More than we can name.
>
>Peter K

Actually, to support your argument, as a case in point, many people have
noted that Romeo and Juliet is very similar to Novellino by Masuccio di
Salerno in 1476 and "La Giulietta" by Luigi da Porto in 1535.  Luigi claimed
to have heard the story from an archer of Verona called Peregrino who
claimed to have heard it in turn from his father.  In 1554, one Bandello
published another novel which had a similar story, and also claimed to have
heard it from someone called Peregrino.  Pierre Boisteau later published a
novel based upon the Luigi and Bandello's work, but re-worked several parts.
From english translations of Boisteau work by Arthur Brooke in the form of a
poem called "The Tragical Historye of Romeus and Juliet" in 1562, and a
novel called "Palace of Pleasure" by Paynter which had a tale titled "The
Goodly hystory of the true and constant love betweene Rhomeo and Julietta",
it is evident that Shakespeare himself also adopted what was a tale that was
popular for a long time when he first published Romeo and Juliet in 1957.

It is also speculated that Cinderella also has many origins.  One of the
popular ideas is that the story was based upon a Chinese fairy tale, which
appears to be one of the older versions of the story, though that is up to
debate.  There was also a Native American version that appears to be
independant from any European or Asian origins as well.  While the specifics
are different, the general story is the same.  One could support the theory
of the Jungian archetype, where there are certain universal ideas that
permeate human consciousness and manifest themselves in the folklore of
different cultures.  Joseph Campbell was a fan what with his dispositon of
Star Wars and Lord of the Rings being the contemporary iteration of the
classic hero quest.

There is a theory that there are only few truely original proto-ideas, from
which all other ideas are but a derivative, an evolutionary change.  These
proto-ideas are rare, and if remembered, always revolutionary in nature.
For instance the wheel was a proto-idea.  Wagons, chariots, cars, bicycles,
etc are all but evolutions of the proto idea (kind of like object oriented
programming, with different classes, more specific classes inheriting the
properties of a larger more general class which it is a member of).  Of
course these evolutions take a lot of hard work, effort and creativity and
in some instances genius.

To sum up this long winded and pompous post and bring this whole thread back
to the original discussion "RE: [Leica] Re: Lens Designs and history- the
only take" does it really matter if lens designs are fully independent
creations, or improvements to old designs.  As long as they are indeed
improvements, and that the people doing the improvements do not violate
international laws.  Patents do not last forever, for example the Tessar
patent ended in 1920 and the Planar patent (I believe) ended 1914.  The
Biogon and the later Hologon patent was based upon a master patent by M.M.
Roosinov, so they like the Aviogon or the Super Angulon are all derivatives
as well.  Anyone who wished was able to freely manufacture lenses based upon
those designs or even copy them verbatim once the international or locally
recognized patents had expired.  They just could not use the trademarked
names for the designs.  As for the lens mounts and rangfinding devices in
the bodies, I do not have any information on them, so perhaps they were
ripped of, I do not know.

Alex
zone@panix.com

P.S.  Thanks for everyone who gave me advice on changing the light seals on
my R4 body