[Am-info] Mindshare works two ways "windows"

[ethical@1of1.net]

In a message dated 2002 May 18 (Saturday), timestamp 04:02 AM, 
   on the topic [Am-info] Mindshare works two ways     "windows",
   Gene Gaines <gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com> wrote:

"|Why do I dignify Microsoft my capitalizing the words
"|"Windows" and "Word"?

Because the universally adopted convention in written English is to
capitalize proper nouns.  You may not like Gary, Indiana, or Newark,
New Jersey, but do you think you are dignifying Indiana by
capitalizing "Gary" or dignifying New Jersey by by capitalizing
"Newark"?   Rick Fox is the Los Angeles Lakers' hatchet man, the guy
who gets the assignment to commit the hard foul; he's a man you love
to hate, but are you dignifying him by writing his name "Rick Fox"
instead of "rick fox"?  No:  if you failed to capitalize the proper
nouns, you would be considered kinky at best and ignorant at worst. 
Your failure to capitalize proper nouns would reflect more on you, and
would reflect unfavorably, than it would reflect on the target of your
intended derision. 

"|I had been using those terms before Microsoft appropriated them on
"|Apples and early PCs.

Microsoft did not appropriate the words for their original meanings. 
Microsoft added a separate meaning for words that already had
meanings, and did not subtract or make exclusive one iota of the
original meanings of the words. 

"|I see no validity to the Microsoft claim to hold valid copyrights on
"|those words.

You mean trademark, not copyright.  Copyright law and trademark law
are entirely separate bodies of law with different origins and
different purposes and sometimes directly opposing principles. 
Individual words are not proper subjects of copyright; nobody, nohow,
can get a copyright for a word.  Microsoft undoubtedly does hold valid
trademark rights in the _marks_ Windows, Word, and Money; but holding
rights in a _mark_ is a very, very different thing from holding rights
in a _word_.  There are literally thousands of reported court
decisions that explain the distinction in great detail. 

"|How about "Money"?  Yeah, Microsoft claims to own that term when
"|applied to computers.

Actually, it does not.  It claims the trademark only as to software
programs.  

"|So.

"|I am thinking about just saying NO.  I will not again capitalize the
"|words "windows" or "word" or "money", unless called for by proper
"|English usage, such as beginning a sentence.

"|What do you think? 

I think the idea is exceptionally stupid.  Do not take this
personally; I am referring to the idea, not to its proponent. 


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