RE: [Nolug] RMS vs Cisco (Round 1 *ding*ding*)

Hi Mark.

In the first case it was a licensed customer who had the source so that they
could add offices. They were supposed to pay us per office. They made some
changes to the software, claimed it as their own and didn't pay us for the extra
offices. They continued to pay us for the original offices, however. They knew
only too well what they were doing. Besides the copyright we had a contract
spelling all this out. They settled quickly when we mentioned injunction.

In the second case a consultant doing some work for us made copies of patent
applications taken from a locked file cabinet. He also copied the schematics he
had access to do his work and pulled 2 listings of the code from my "throw out"
pile. We caught him with all the stuff in his trunk. He was getting ready to
start his own company to compete with us. He settled after being booked.

The third time a company who competed with us reverse engineered our product,
hardware and software. This was mainly a patent violation for the hardware but
had some software aspects too. It dragged out for a year or so then in
pre-trail discovery their own expert witness told them that we were right. They
paid us royalties.

The distinction between software and hardware becomes somewhat blurry when you
start talking about custom designed ASIC's. Some software can even be patented.
It all gets very complicated when you toss in trade secret law and whatever (if
any) contact you have with the other party.

John

   John Souvestre - Integrated Data Systems - (504) 355-0609

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nolug@stoney.redfishnetworks.com [mailto:owner-
> nolug@stoney.redfishnetworks.com] On Behalf Of Mark A. Hershberger
> Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 3:53 PM
> To: nolug@nolug.org
> Subject: Re: [Nolug] RMS vs Cisco (Round 1 *ding*ding*)
>
> "John Souvestre" <johns@sstar.com> writes:
>
> > Not anything I did on my own, but three times as an employee. Each
> > time resulted in legal action (which we won).
>
> Was it stolen via the GPL?
>
> When someone steals your work - no matter how they do it - it sucks.
>
> I have no doubt that there are people who make mistakes with the GPL
> (the Atheros Driver appears to be one of those cases).
>
> I don't think, though, that the GPL is designed to be theft-by-license.
>
> Mark.
> ___________________
> Nolug mailing list
> nolug@nolug.org

___________________
Nolug mailing list
nolug@nolug.org
Received on 12/15/08