I'll try again - maybe Darren has fixed the SORBS problems. I am not at all surprised at IBM's action. When the ESP box turned up at Lufthansa, one of my IBM contacts was quite literally very nearly speechless. Our speculation was that PSI had found some ruddy great hole in IBM's Ts&Cs, but that seems not to have been the case.
IBM and the industry have generally implemented IBM's software Ts&Cs to the letter. In the PCM days, it was the #1 rule. I had a situation once where a customer was down with a Sev2 blocking a major application - another customer running the same system in the same town had just received a PTF for the same problem - but it was licensed code. We asked IBM formally (via Telex) if we could have permission to copy the PTF between systems, or if they could get a local IBM branch SE to do it. The answer was a firm _NO_ to both - they would cut a new tape and ship it ASAP. They did - it was hand-carried by an IBM courier by air at hideous expense right across Europe. Didn't take very long, in the end. If I build some box that will run z/OS and succeed - by whatever means - in getting a valid licence out of IBM, it does NOT mean I can ship that box to someone else and transfer the licence without IBM's permission. And certainly not to another country. In general terms - the box is not licensed, the user is. As to why IBM is using software patents - the explanation might be quite simple. They know that certain patents must be licensed to run z/OS and they might also know these patents have not been licensed. Simple - if z/OS runs, you're using the patents and that might be quite sufficient proof without IBM ever touching the box. The absence of hardware patent assertions in the filing might therefore just be because IBM has not yet had a chance to examine the physical box. In the PCM era, IBM and the PCMs used to buy time on each others' systems and sometimes even temporarily lease systems. I worked quite closely on several occasions with Simon Awde, European Corporate Counsel at Amdahl. He once told me his job specification was: a) Don't get sued by IBM b) Don't sue IBM c) Repeat for the rest of the industry -- Phil Payne http://www.isham-research.co.uk +44 7833 654 800 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
