The Right to Copy
In the computer business, as in life, ideas are easily swiped
By James Hanback Jr.
JULY 19, 1999:
When I was a lad of 9, I became the author of a homespun comic strip. My
cartoon consisted of a Smurf-like world of insects, led by a crotchety
ant-like creature called Old Man Bug. Inspired by Disney's The Fox and
the Hound, I dubbed his beetle-shaped wife Big Mama.
That was only the beginning. Before school started in the fall, I had a
cast of more than 100 characters for "Bugland." Then when school came
around, rather than paying attention in class, I often worked on the next
big Bugland adventure. Eventually, my work drew the attention of my
classmates and my teacher. Some of it ended up in the school newspaper.
Suddenly, I developed a rival. It was the beginning of the end of
Bugland, you might say. One day, a folded sheet of notebook paper landed on
my desk with the words "Top Secret" scrawled across the front. Inside,
letters across the top of the page proclaimed that I held in my hands a
contract. It was signed by my fourth-grade competitor and stated that "I
[name] promise that I [name] will not copy any of the characters or comic
strips written by [my rival's name] and that I [name] will not spy on his
work."
It was, perhaps, my first brush with copyright law. I signed the paper
and responded in kind with a duplicate contract for my rival. I don't think
he ever replied.
After that, I lost interest in Bugland. "Good artists copy. Great
artists steal," Picasso reportedly once said. How could I be a great
cartoonist if I couldn't take inspiration from other people's work?
This fourth-grade tale might seem trivial, but similar stories have
played out countless times in the world of business. Consider how Apple
Computer's Steve Jobs felt when, in the mid-1980s, rival Bill Gates of
Microsoft suddenly, and quite dramatically, developed his Windows software
for the PC--drawing inspiration from the new graphical user interface of
Apple's Macintosh. The irony here is that Jobs himself derived the idea for
a graphical user interface from work being done at Xerox.
Apple had a unique thing going, and going well. At that time in its
history, Apple reportedly had a 50-percent share of the personal computer
marketplace. And then along came Gates.
I have to wonder at that point if Jobs didn't lose some of his
enthusiasm for the project, much the way I lost my enthusiasm for Bugland.
Whatever the case, it wasn't long afterward that Jobs left Apple--largely
because of clashes with then-CEO John Sculley--and the computer company's
share of the marketplace began to dwindle. Sculley and Apple ended up suing
Microsoft over Windows' similarity to the Macintosh. They lost.
Now along come the '90s, and Jobs returns to Apple with a new take on
the old "computer for the rest of us" idea. That vision becomes the iMac,
which has been nothing short of a miracle rebound for Apple Computer. Now,
however, it may seem to Jobs and company as though history is repeating
itself.
At a PC Expo trade show in New York recently, computer company Future
Power introduced an all-in-one PC called the E-Power, according to reports
from ABCNEWS.com. It runs Windows software but otherwise looks nearly
identical to the iMac, with a translucent plastic casing and a choice of
five different colors. It even has the iMac's curves.
In response, Apple Computer has reportedly filed a suit against Future
Power that seeks to halt the company from distributing computers that copy
the iMac's design.
Early this year, I predicted that consumers would start seeing the
influence of the iMac in the PC world, with sleek new designs and brighter
colors. Sure enough, other PC manufacturers have begun to find new and
innovative designs for their products, though few of them even remotely
resemble the iMac.
People may agree or disagree with Apple's decision to pursue this
matter. Personally, I disagree; after all, for the past 20 years, no
company ever thought of bringing suit against another for building a beige,
rectangular personal computer. Regardless, let's hope that this dispute
doesn't lead to new heartbreak for Jobs. His return is the best thing that
could have happened to Apple in recent years.
Perhaps Apple won't even follow through with the lawsuit. The E-Power is
extremely new, and it's doubtful that Future Power has the marketing muscle
behind it to make the model competitive with Apple and Microsoft. And even
if the E-Power does get its foot in consumers' doors, it doesn't mean the
end of the iMac's market share.
Besides, competition and rivalry can be a good thing--they're what push
people to excel. Here's hoping Apple understands as much.

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