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From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: House analogies
Message-ID: <649IOE@taronga.com>
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 12:17:23 GMT
Lines: 45
Gak. You want analogies, try this on for size?
Adam thought up a new way of building houses. He wasn't in the house
selling business, so he started selling plans to builders.
Bob bought a set of plans, and built some houses on his property. Then
he started improving them. He sold plans for his improvements to other
builders who had bought Adam's houses.
Other people went out and took measurements of Adams houses, and made
plans from them, and built houses, and Adam said that was OK. He even
published the wiring and plumbing designs, which helped these people
(Charlie, Quincy, and so on). Some of these became popular, and people
started using them in office buildings by Ichabod and tents by Mark.
Bob started publishing parts of his plans, that didn't contain any of
Adams work, and asked Adam if it was OK. Adam said yes. In fact, Adam
was using this stuff to improve his own house.
So Bob went out to one of his houses and measured everything that was
different from Bob's house, and gave copies away to anyone who wanted
them. Adam didn't say anything.
So Bob finally went and measured his house down to the tiniest detail,
leaving out the few bits he was still doing using Adams plan, and gave
it away. Adam didn't say anything.
So Bob's buddy Bill (who used to work with Bob) took these plans and
used them to build houses. Adam sued Bill. Then Adam sued Bob. And
claimed they owned all the plans that included the stuff Bob gave away,
which by now included just about every house-builder out there.
Meanwhile Ichabod has been scaling down his office buildings, and Mark
has been improving his tents, and pretty soon nobody will want to live in
houses any more...
Did Bob do the right thing? Did Adam? Could Bob have measured so accurately
without working from Adam's plans? Adam thinks a house is too complex for
Bob to have built anyway. What will happen? See you next week... same Bat-time,
same Bat-channel...
--
`-_-'
Have you hugged your wolf today? 'U`
Peter da Silva, Taronga Park BBS, Houston, TX +1 713 568 0480/1032