Wednesday, January 17, 1996
NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
9A
Court refuses computer copyright
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court denied legal protection for a user-friendly component of a popular computer program yesterday but did not resolve the broader question of how copyright law might guard software firms.
The 4-4 vote upheld a lower court ruling that deprived Lotus Development Corp. of copyright protection for the part of a computer program that tells how to use the system.
The case had been closely watched as the first high court hearing on how federal copyright law applies to computer software. But the evenly divided justices did not explain their ruling, and thus it will have little effect beyond the Lotus case.
Justice John Paul Stevens disqualified himself from the case for unannounced reasons. The brief, unsigned opinion did not say which justices voted to uphold or reverse the lower court.
The Lotus 1-2-3 software system, introduced in 1983, is a program that provides tabular and graphic display formats. Users operate the program through its command menu.
Lotus, now an IBM subsidiary based in Cambridge, Mass., sued Borland International Inc. in 1990 because of the command menus Borland used in its spreadsheet formats Quattro and Quattro Pro.
A federal judge ruled that Borland, based in Scotts Valley, Calif., had infringed on the Lotus 1-2-3 menu.
But the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling and threw out the case. The court noted that federal copyright law
protected certain aspects of computer programs, but it said the command menu did not qualify for protection because it amounted to a method of operation.
The appeals court said the menu was similar to the buttons on a videocassette recorder.
Tuesday's 4-4 ruling left that decision intact.
Tuesday 4-6uring the four-hour block During oral argument on Jan. 8, Lotus attorney Henry B. Gutman told the justices the software's command menu was a literary work entitled to the same protection given to musical scores or works of choreography.
Reback said Lotus should have to meet the higher standard required for patent protection.
But Borland's lawyer, Gary L. Reback, said the words in the menu were more like basic English grammar, which cannot be copyrighted in the same way as written English compositions.
AT&T hands out first of 40,000 pink slips
The Associated Press
MORRISTOWN, N.J. — AT&T Corp. began handing out pink slipsto at least 2,000 employees yesterday in the first of a series of layoffs that will eliminate 40,000 jobs during the next three years nationwide.
Supervisors delivered the news in one-on-one meetings.
"The old Ma Bell mentality that you have a job for life is not there anymore," said Bob Cort as he arrived at his advertising job at AT&T's Network Systems office in Morris Township. "You've got a lot of people working here who could find themselves without jobs today. It's a stressful time for everyone."
The telecommunications giant
plans to cut about 13 percent of its work force during the next three years as it splits into three companies.
The 40,000 includes 7,000 workers who accepted a buyout offer. About 60 percent of the jobs eliminated are expected to come from supervisory ranks.
Some employees received good
news. Jeff Conrad, who publishes a newsletter for the compensation and benefits office in Morristown, was told he would keep his job.
"The mood in my group is relief because we're OK," Conrad said. "But we realize other people aren't in the same situation."
AT&T said it would offer job counseling for dismissed employees.
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