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Comment by cpeterso | Hacker News Reader

Heck, Star Trek even called the tablet computer a "PADD" (Personal Access Display Device).

I remember there were plenty of iPADD jokes when the iPad first came out. I'm fairly certain there is a LCARS-interface app for the device as well.

Yup. http://vimeo.com/26187915

And here is where I get to remind everyone that LCARS is IP and Copyrighted:

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/cbs-legal-thr...

And here's where I clear this BS and remind everyone that it is NOT copyrighted, and NOT trademarked and CBS has no right to it (and does not claim to).

I am the author of the LCARS Reader iPad app and have been bullied by CBS many times. Their own general council however admits to having no legal basis for their claims.

What CBS does have is expensive lawyers that usually get their way.

Any possibility of an Android version? I enjoy using https://market.android.com/details?id=org.hermit.tricorder&#... from time to time, wouldn't mind an entirely LCARS theme'd phone to show off to my friends every once in a while.

Hey, thanks for letting me know that. I was still under the misimpression from the original report! Did you ever do a blog post about this I could link to as an update on my own blog?

Sorry, no blog entry. Snarky forum posts aside, I usually stay silent on legal matters. But I will tell you that there are a lot of us LCARS devs and more and more apps are appearing in the store.

It would be good to have a formal statement about this somewhere because citing that article has scared some people.

I thought it was pretty cool that Gene Roddenberry had a clause in his contract that allows anyone who makes a tricorder-like device to call it a tricorder.

Unlike George Lucas, who makes people license the word "droid".

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