<scgtrp> random question: how strict are copyright laws? if for some strange reason i wanted to create a company called megasoft and release an os called doors could ms (the original) send lawyers after me?
<_W_> scgtrp, the test is usually if whether a user might mistake one product and company for another
<reisio> scgtrp: they could, but they'd lose
<_W_> in your case, that test will probably fail, but that doesn't mean Microsoft won't still try to sue
<reisio> indeed
<scgtrp> well, assume doors is different enough from windows that anyone but a complete idiot could tell the difference
<reisio> they'll just threaten you first
<reisio> scgtrp: it's not about the software
<reisio> scgtrp: it's about the name
<reisio> if people think 'doors' is 'windows'
<reisio> which they won't, of course
<scgtrp> ok, maybe microsoft was a bad example
<reisio> people that get the joke will obviously not get confused
<scgtrp> what if i made a myspace clone called yourarea?
<_W_> the problem with the laws of today is that the laws are so rarely actually applied; what is really applied are the economic threat of having to spend lots of money on lawyers
<reisio> and people that don't get it, just won't associate it
<reisio> scgtrp: yourarea doesn't sound or look like 'myspace'
<reisio> well, what is really applied is the precedence of decades of corporate litigation
<scgtrp> so they couldn't (successfully) sue me for that?
<reisio> scgtrp: depends on what you mean by successfully
<reisio> they couldn't win against you
<reisio> but they could defeat you
<scgtrp> if they went crazy and tried to sue me would they win
<reisio> bury you in court costs, etc.
<reisio> no, they would lose
<scgtrp> do you think they would care?
<reisio> but they could make you give up by bankrupting you
<reisio> no