Didn't Apple have a successful case against Franklin back in the early 80's? I remember having a Franklin or two in school along with all the other real Apple IIe boxes, but I seem to recall that Apple nailed them and made them stop making IIe clones.
John >>> "Kent Hundley" 7/26/02 1:42:34 PM >>> Apple sued MS in the 80's and lost, although the issue was complex and one of the reasons MS was victorious was due to its claims that Apple itself had copied from systems at Xerox PARC. WRT reverse engineering, even if Huawei did reverse engineer Cisco code, they are still probably within "fair use" under US law. There are precedents for this sort of thing, Sega vs Accolade and Sony vs Connectix. I found an interesting paper on the subject for those that are interested: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~pam/papers/l&e%20reveng3.pdf IANAL, but based on the precedents cited in the above paper, it looks like in general reverse engineering software is an acceptable practice and Huawei is within their legal rights. (since they made $3.1 billion in 2001, I'd say if Cisco thought they had a case they would certainly have taken Huawei to court by now) Regards, Kent -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of supernet Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002 10:06 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Huawei routers - a.k.a. futurewei.com [7:49778] I think it would be hard to prove that they copied Cisco product. Otherwise, we can also say AMD copied Intel, Microsoft copied Apple. Just my thought. Yoshi -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Craig Columbus Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002 8:58 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Huawei routers - a.k.a. futurewei.com [7:49778] Just thought I'd comment on this.... Let me issue a disclaimer first: I've never heard of these routers until this thread. I'm only responding to the information presented in these posts. I've been, so far, unable to verify the information presented for myself. If I'm mistaken, and the product isn't a Cisco ripoff, then I apologize. With that said: Am I the only one who finds it troubling that this company has, apparently, copied Cisco's proprietary designs and is selling them as their own? Sure they're cheaper. So is pirated software. Does it make it right to support an operation like this? These guys even ripped off Cisco's product line names. Surely there's some legal recourse for Cisco, at least in the USA. I guess I'm bothered because this group is so anti-NDA violation, anti-software piracy, etc....and then when something like this comes out, no one bothers to speak up against it. In fact, people seem excited because they'll be able to put together a cheaper lab to practice for the CCIE lab. Personally, I don't see any difference between this and willingly buying / exchanging pirated software. If I discover that the claims are true, and that this company is only selling reverse-engineered Cisco products, I, for one, will not support them or their equipment. Just my opinion... Craig At 03:10 PM 7/26/2002 +0000, you wrote: >Hi group, > >Huawei routers were introduced into the local market sometime in the past 2 >months in an asian networking exhibition called "Communicasia". > >That's where I met the Huawei distributor whom had volunteered to provide a >demo set for me to play with (myself from an international mnc, has current >projects to revamp our LAN/WAN structure) and guess what, my boss is >requesting me to have a look at their routers ! > >The day the router came into the office, I noticed that there were no >manuals provided. After meddling with the router, I believed that there was >no need to request for one in the first place ! There will be no >requirements to load the box with IOS, it is IOS (with a bit of >differences). The whole thing was CLONED ! > >I'm not too sure about reversed-engineering but more on how Cisco is going >to protect their market dominance. With boxes selling for 30-40% cheaper, I >guess lots of ppl will be rushing off to buy it. > >Guess might as well I pack my bags for China to get a new set of >certifications. > >Ron Tan Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=49822&t=49778 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
