On 3/12/2019 2:35 PM, Wolf K wrote:
On 2019-03-12 14:05, Mike wrote:
[...]

If anybody tried to implement a real windows API, wouldn't they
be instantly dragged into court for violation of intellectual
property rights?

Even if they wanted, they probably wouldn't be able to.
[...]

You're assuming there's only one way to do it. It may be tricky to code
a work-alike of the proprietary parts of a program, but if you do it,
you've not copied the original.

A principle of patent law is that you can patent the solution to a
problem, but the problem itself. If you could do that, you could patent
not just a new mousetrap, but also the problem "How do I trap a mouse?"

I'm certainly not competent to argue patent law.
But let's talk about the process.
What I said was, "dragged into court."
Microsoft doesn't have to win.
All they have to do is bankrupt you with legal fees.
A small enterprise has zero chance of surviving a MS onslaught.
Even if they win, they have zero chance of making a dent in the
MS stranglehold on the desktop.
MS can EASILY break their emulation.

The only possibility is for the linux community to come together
with a single-minded objective of unseating Microsoft.
Look no further than distrowatch.com to estimate the probability of success.
A business model of 'FREE' is not conducive to raising capital.