Hello from Gregg C Levine writing for myself Nice post Craig, except for one problem. His name is Jay, not John. But I won't stun you over it. And nice to see you here, Jay, anyway. ------------------- Gregg C Levine [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------ "The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi "Use the Force, Luke."� Obi-Wan Kenobi (This company dedicates this E-Mail to General Obi-Wan Kenobi ) (This company dedicates this E-Mail to Master Yoda )
> -----Original Message----- > From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of > Craig Vernon > Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 11:57 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Hi there... > > John, > > I am not a licensed or practising attorney but I do have legal > qualifications, so I can render an opinion but not for a fee (though I can > for wage to my employer?? because that falls under self representation)! > This is my own personal opinion and I do not purport to represent anyone > else. > > I think you are right, all this talk about IBM cracking down on Hercules, > speaking plainly, sounds like bullshit to me. As you suggest the only > likely claim of any infringement would be under patent law. As copyright > would require an actual copying of code (be it source or object) no claim > would succeed. Copyright protects the "written expression" not the ideas or > concepts embedded in it. Ideas are basically free. Patent law comes closest > to protecting an idea insofar as it will protect a function or an idea as > implemented in an invention or process. While a function might be > duplicated by a later invention, if it goes beyond the original invention > and adds its own novel or inventive function, it will be considered a new > invention in its own right. On this basis a patent would be granted, if one > were applied for (so long as it were not already public - the biggest > stumbling block to obtaining a patent). People often say that extra amount > of ingenuity must be 10% or more which makes it sound like an objective > measure, but I'd like to see how you measure ingenuity without getting > subjective about it! > > Anyway, I can only guess that Hercules goes quite beyond any of the > specific patents that IBM holds related to 360/370/390/ hardware (and/or > microcode), since it emulates that hardware on an entirely different > hardware platform, and, I suspect, would satisfy the required extra > inventive step to be considered a new and novel invention in its own right. > Just MHO and definitely not IBM's. Besides unless there is some perceived > loss of money or market why would anyone bother anyway? If IBM did have a > P/390 product and various follow on products and in my experience it was > never a big market, that is why it was handed over to IBM's business > partners. I think you can rest easy. The internet is great for propagation > of fictions, rumours and sometimes even facts. > > Good luck with the RH installer, I had some problems initially but just > reloaded it and it went smoothly. > > Regards, Craig > > +61-2-9354-7283 tel +61-2-9354-7797 fax > Craig Vernon B.App.Sc. LL.B. > IBM Support Centre FB41 > 55 Coonara Ave > West Pennant Hills 2125 > Sydney NSW Australia > Visit us at http://www.ibm.com/services/au/its > > "You can not find a solution using the same thinking that created the > problem." - Albert EInstein > > If received in error please delete and notify the sender immediately. No > other use permitted. Neither confidentiality, privilege nor copyright > waived. > > > > Jay Maynard > <jmaynard@conmicr To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > o.cx> cc: > Sent by: Linux on Subject: Hi there... > 390 Port > <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > IST.EDU> > > > 16/04/2002 11:01 > AM > Please respond to > Linux on 390 Port > > > > > > (I get 350 emails a day. Why am I joining another list?!) > > Hi there. I guess I should join this list, so I can see what's going on in > another segment of the S/390 world...especially since Hercules, the project > I spend most of my free time on, seems to be a regular topic of discussion > here. > > I've looked back through the archives a bit, after getting pointed at the > redbook discussion. I have no idea why IBM did anything; they certainly > haven't told me. > > For the record, the Hercules list is uncensored. Phil Payne's access was > set > to moderated (he can still post, if approved by a list moderator) because > he > was disrupting the list despite repeated requests from a large number of > list members to lay off on his continual FUD. He was asked to take it to a > list created especially for the purpose, and did not. > > As for Fish's flame, which by now has gained a degree of notoriety: I was > and am uncomfortable with the language he used, but I can certainly > understand why he felt pushed to that extreme. It is still in the Yahoo! > Groups hercules-390 list archives because I have not received a request to > remove it; if that request were to come, but not from Fish, I haven't > decided what I'd do about it. > > Now, on to the claims of Hercules violating intellectual property rights of > IBM... > > There are four kinds of intellectual property in the US: trademark, > copyright, trade secret, and patent. Trademarks are not violated if used to > identify the owner's products and acknowledged. Hercules does not violate > any of IBM's (or anyone else's) trademarks that I'm aware of, and can and > will correct any such violation if advised of it. Copyrights are not being > violated because we do not distribute any IBM code that has been > copyrighted. (The code available from http://www.cbttape.org is all in the > public domain.) Trade secrets are only protected as long as they are > actually secret; reverse engineering by a party not contractually bound to > keep the secret destroys that status and removes any such protection. > > This leaves only patents. In the US, only a patent attorney is, by law, > competent to read patents and render an opinion on whether a patent is > being > infringed. I am not a patent attorney. Therefore, I do not and have not > read > any patent which may be claimed to be infringed. It is IBM's responsibility > to notify me (or any other Hercules developer; as the host of the web site > and release coordinator for the package, as well as the most visible > developer actually in the United States, I believe I am the logical > recipient of such notification) of any infringement and demand that such > infringement cease. Until that point, I have no responsibility to act based > on others' allegations and hearsay. I am easy to find, as my home address > and telephone number are posted on my home page. > > Until I hear from IBM directly, I refuse to worry about the issue. > > Finally, I do note Alan Cox's comments on the advisability of IBM shutting > down Hercules, and echo them. I believe that news would spread rapidly > among > the Open Source[1] community, and would cause IBM immeasurable damage; I > would feel no compulsion to keep anything of that nature secret, either. > > Fortunately, I also believe IBM understands this. Between that, and their > public comments to Eric Raymond and Bruce Perens about not enforcing their > patents against Open Source developers, I doubt that any of the dire > predictions about IBM sending a cease and desist notice for Hercules will > actually come to pass. > > Now that I've gotten all that out of the way...can anyone help me get Red > Hat 7.2 running on Hercules? I can't get the installer to actually install. > :-)
