Steve Jobs on Apple and Microsoft Lawsuit: Don’t Copyright Function
What Jobs talks about
Jobs argues that there has to be a clear line between protecting expression and trying to own basic software functions. Using the trash can example, he says copyright should not be extended so far that it locks up the idea itself.
He describes a spectrum of increasingly broad claims—position, naming, user movement, icon editing—and says that at some point the law would be trying to copyright function, which he believes crosses a line.
The remark captures Jobs’s view of interface design as both creative and competitive: great companies can learn from one another, but they should not be allowed to appropriate the core function of a product.
A TV news narrator introduces the legal dispute, then Jobs speaks in a quoted excerpt.
In his words
“This reserve sign's patented.”
“One can say on one end of the spectrum that the actual bits used to make that trash can are copyrightable”
“Maybe we shouldn't let people call it a trash can.”
“We'd like to copyright the function of a trash can.”
“Good artists copy; great artists steal.”
Key points
- Jobs says copying the actual bits is different from copying an idea or function.
- He warns against expanding copyright claim by claim until it covers a trash can’s function.
- He uses the trash can icon as an example of how interface features can be too broadly protected.
- He says there is a point where society must draw the line and not let ideas be copyrighted.
- He invokes Picasso’s line: great artists steal.
Full transcript
Graphical user interfaces were also the subject for the courts this year in probably the most celebrated legal battle in computer history. Apple Computer sued its longtime ally Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. Apple accused the two of selling a graphical user interface that looked too much like the GUI on the Macintosh. Apple claims that such things as the trash can and the overlapping windows were too similar in Microsoft's Windows and HP's NewWave programs, which employ icons and pull-down menus like the Mac. Apple provided these pictures to show the similarity, but HP claimed that most of the screen is user definable and supplied this picture to show NewWave in its undefined state. Shortly after the suit was filed, Steve Jobs, the man that brought the Macintosh to market, gave a
speech to the Software Publishers Association and talked about the lawsuit. "And I was sitting at my table, actually I noticed we had a reserved sign at our table, one of these little reserve signs. I looked at the bottom, it says patent number 3,086,658, and, uh, so this reserve sign's patented." I thought that was symbolic of the times that we live in. One can say on one end of the spectrum that the actual bits used to make that trash can are copyrightable, but if you copy the bits, you should—you should not do that. And let's move a little bit further down the road; we could say, "Well, uh, maybe calling it a trash can isn't a good idea. Maybe we shouldn't let people call it a trash can." And then you move a little bit
further down the road, you say, "Well, maybe you shouldn't put it in the lower right-hand corner, to pick one at random. Maybe that's not a good idea." And then you move a little bit further down the road, you say, "Well, maybe if the user can move it around freely, uh, they shouldn't be able to put it in the lower right-hand corner." And then if you move down the road a little further, maybe you should say, "Well, even if you have a different icon, you shouldn't provide an icon editor with your system, because somebody could change that icon to look like a copyrighted icon and move it in the lower right-hand corner." And then you get down all the way to the other end, you say, "Well, we'd like to copyright the function of a trash can." And I think somewhere along that line, that, along that spectrum, we would all draw a line and say you shouldn't cross this line
and try to copyright stuff. When we were developing the MAE we kept in mind, I think, a very famous quote from Pablo Picasso, which was, "Good artists copy; great artists steal." When we come back, the latest GUI Presentation Manager. Oh (music)
From YouTube captions, lightly punctuated for readability. Timestamps link to the video above. Errors are possible.