Gordon Spence wrote: >> Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 14:28:04 -0500 >> From: "Richard Woods" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Subject: Poaching -- Definition (was: Mersenne: Re: Mersenne Digest V1 #1038) >> >> Paul Missman wrote: >>> I know that this might be earth shattering news for you, >>> but there is no such thing as "poaching". >> >> I think that folks who've been following the poaching discussion from >> the beginning know that there is indeed such a thing, and what it is. >> But let me post a refresher for the sake of newcomers. > > Don't bother we have heard it all before, several times and no > doubt it will crop up again in about a year or so. Until the > license file specifically _exludes_ it and the check-in/check-out > process _prevents_ it, then despite the fact that it outside the > *spirit* of the project, it is within the *rules*.
Actually, poaching is outside the "letter" of the project, as well as its spirit. >From http://mersenne.org/ips/#challenge_info -- "Disclaimers: ... Every effort has been made to ensure that you will be assigned an exponent that no one else has tested or is testing." ***** There it is -- a specific statement that PrimeNet's assignments are _intended to be exclusive_. ***** Once you've read this posting this far, you can't honestly claim you haven't seen that statement. Of course, PrimeNet can't _guarantee_ (or even enforce) that exclusivity, so there's the next sentence to disclaim legal liability (but poaching is not about legal liability): "We are not responsible for lost prize money, fame, credit, etc. should someone accidentally or maliciously test the number you are working on and find it to be prime." Note that the preceding statement's adverbs describing someone else's testing of a number that is assigned are (1) "accidentally" and (2) "maliciously", not "accidentally" and "innocently". Richard Woods _________________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
