MS Office on Linux 14777

Ray Ingles Never nicked a byte, Ray. Purely an intellectual exercise. As to why no one behaves differently, read the transcripts of the DOJ-states vs Microsoft trial. Full of incredibly moronic words, even from the "expert" witnesses. It was all stilted to suit the purposes of the lawyers involved who were trying to give the judge a legal pigeon hole to put some factoid into. Nothing was considered on technical issues.

Jackson said that linux was a complete waste of time on the desktop since it was a server and therefore not a valid consideration as a compebreastor for Windows. Apple used a different processor chip, so that,too was eliminated. And so on.

In copyright cases everyone testifying is being paid by one side or another to bolster some point of law for a law that was originally written to protect artworks, music, and literature. You can't patent something like Windows, so you copyright it and that works for binaries. But source is a different kind of thing.

In real business, software companies do try to protect their technology via patents. They will use copyright to protect against copying their whole works, too, particularly if someone is using it for gain. Otherwise most companies just keep their code as a trade secret.