w7ntf wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:
w> While we are on the topic of proprietary software, remember
w> the big flap in the 80's with a company called
w> SOFTWARE-2000, and their proprietary network node firmware
w> called NETROM (C) ? When Nord><Link came along and wrote
w> something with all of the atrributes of NETROM, but better,
w> Software-2000 screamed bloody murder.
For the record, Ron Raikes and Software 2000 never claimed that the Netrom
protocol was itself proprietary, and it was documented in their manual. The
essence of their claim against TheNet was that significant parts of the binary
ROM code were copied verbatim, which no one disputes would be a copyright
violation if the allegations were true.
I mean to express no opinion here about the merits of the dispute and the
related facts, but only to clarify what the issue was.
-- Mike
