Apple sued by Open Group, files countersuit

[Laukev7]

http://news.com.com/2100-1016-1015814.html

So if Apple wins the lawsuit, then Mac OS X and Linux might both "officially" become UNIX. Not that it's really important, but it would certainly sort out the brand name confusion.

What do you think?

Not sure where to post this, sorry if I posted it at the wrong place.

[ June 11, 2003: Message edited by: Laukev7 ]

[Pissed_Macman]

This is shit and it goes against the whole concept of open source. Go Apple!

[Calum]

i agree with macman. I can't stand the "open" group. people misusing the word "open" in software really pisses me off. reminds me of caldera "open" linux and its proprietary GUI...

go apple indeed.

[Bazoukas]

SUE HIM,,,,,,SUE HIM TOO,,,,,,,,,,,,,WTF.....SUE HIM AND THE GUY THAT SUED THE OTHER GUY THAT SUED ME AND HIM AND THE ONE THAT SUED THE ONE WHO SUED.

  WTF. DID YOU FORGET TO SUE HIM? I'LL SUE YOU TOO. AND I WILL SUE YOU FOR MAKING ME SUING YOU IN THE FIRST. AND THEN I WILL SUE THE JUDGE BECAUSE HE DIDNT SUE YOU SO THE JUDGE WILL SUE YOU TOO AS WELL.

  FUCK. I WILL SUE MY SELF FOR SUING EVERYBODY THAT HAS SUED ME AND THEN I WILL SUE THEM BACK AGAIN SO THEY CAN SUE ME SO I CAN SUE THEM TRIPLE TIME.


   WTF!!!!!!!!!!! I WILL SUE THE MOON BECAUSE THE TADES MAKE ME WANNA SUE!

[ June 12, 2003: Message edited by: bazoukas ]

[KernelPanic]

quote:Originally posted by bazoukas:
SUE HIM,,,,,,SUE HIM TOO,,,,,,,,,,,,,WTF.....SUE HIM AND THE GUY THAT SUED THE OTHER GUY THAT SUED ME AND HIM AND THE ONE THAT SUED THE ONE WHO SUED.

  WTF. DID YOU FORGET TO SUE HIM? I'LL SUE YOU TOO. AND I WILL SUE YOU FOR MAKING ME SUING YOU IN THE FIRST. AND THEN I WILL SUE THE JUDGE BECAUSE HE DIDNT SUE YOU SO THE JUDGE WILL SUE YOU TOO AS WELL.

  FUCK. I WILL SUE MY SELF FOR SUING EVERYBODY THAT HAS SUED ME AND THEN I WILL SUE THEM BACK AGAIN SO THEY CAN SUE ME SO I CAN SUE THEM TRIPLE TIME.


   WTF!!!!!!!!!!! I WILL SUE THE MOON BECAUSE THE TADES MAKE ME WANNA SUE!

[ June 12, 2003: Message edited by: bazoukas ]

The Heineken advert was about right  

[Refalm]

Damnit, why does my country get different Heineken advertisements than the rest of the world...

Oh wait  

[Laukev7]

They are not misusing the word "open", Calum. They just happened to use that name before the free / open source movement started. and the name stayed. The word "open", back then meant that they were a coalition that shared common standards to stay compatible with each other. This had nothing to do with open software, and they make it clear on their website.

Redde Caesari quae sunt Caesari, et quae sunt Dei Deo, and all that.

I agree, though, that the term "UNIX" has become too commonplace to stay proprietary. The whole context has changed, and many systems other than the "official" ones are compatible and very similar in structure, and even the original source has had major modifications over the years. Besides, few people ever associate UNIX with the Open Group, and use it as a generic term.

[solo]

I hope Apple wins. UNIX is used by the general populace more as a general term used to identify operating systems that have a feature set comparable to UNIX.

One nice thing though is that if they don't win, it won't kill anyone, just a measely $110,000. I'll just be sad   .

[Calum]

hmm, well they seem to have formed to promote open standards as you say, and under their original guise of X/Open Company Ltd were formed in 1984. Interestingly the Free Software Foundation was also set up in 1984, and Richard Stallman had been working on his open source *IX software, and his emacs rewrite for Unix for a good few years before that. Of course Stallman has never endorsed the use of the word "open", preferring "free" (both of which are ambiguous and do not mean what they are intended to mean).

From this i still opine that the open group have got a cheek doing anything that stifles open standards in computing , and that in fact Stallman's free software concept certainly does predate the Open Group's vision of open standards.

As it happens, while i morally am on the side of apple in this case, i think that legally they are actually in the wrong. Unix is a registered trademark and cannot be said to be generic. If somebody else started selling "macintoshes" because the name was now generic i think apple would have something to say, quite possibly in court.

[Laukev7]

Personally, I think the whole UNIX thing is a source of confusion. But since the UNIX trademark belongs to the Open Group, it should be their choice whether to make UNIX generic or not. And if it turns out that Apple loses the lawsuit, they can still say that their system is based on BSD, which is close enough for most people (if they even heard about UNIX in the first place).

As for which comes before which, well, what's really important to consider is the reasons why the Open Group chose that name.

[Pissed_Macman]

This incindent proves that society sucks and I hate everyone in it and if I had the chance I'd nuke everyone but I'm too lazy so don't worry.

[sway]

unix might be a generic term, but it's not hugely mainstream, like "apple"

apple could still be nice and add a small line of text that says "unix is a registered trademark of adasfadfdsfsdfdaf"

that's not really hard to do. companies are so lazy.

[billy_gates]

I have 2 oppinions.  I think since the Open Group owns that name, then Apple should have to pay unless Apple is using it in a proper way (which I don't know, I'm not a lawyer).  However I also think that Unix is too common and I am also an Apple lover so I think Apple should win.  I also think that if apple wins we should start taking other common TradeMarks away (cough cough Windoes TM, Windows seems pretty common to me)


We shall see what happens.

[psyjax]

This thread should really be in the Mac section...

Oh well, dosn't really matter. It's gotten to long alrady.