Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!midway!tartarus.uchicago.edu!faustus
From: faustus@tartarus.uchicago.edu (Kurt Ackermann)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: logistar (logistan?) and Revlon
Keywords: legal precedent??
Message-ID: <faustus.656956722@tartarus.uchicago.edu>
Date: 26 Oct 90 15:58:42 GMT
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Anyone hear about the stink between logistar (I think that's right), a 
small software firm, and Revlon of cosmetics fame??

Logistar had written software to maintain and keep track of
Revlon's warehouses and distribution systems.

revlon claimed that the programs didn't work as specified under the
contract and they refused to pay for the software.

Logistar begged to differ, and, in response to the lack of payment,
REPOSSESSED ITS OWN SOFTWARE!!!  They entered Revlon computers over
telephone lines, and simply removed all Logistar software from
the system.  Needless to say, this paralyzed Revlon for a few days.

Revlon is suing...


What precedent will be set??  Does Logistar have the right to 
enter Revlon's computers and take back its software, even though it
was unpaid for??  Is this illegal entry?  theft??  

Let's assume for the sake of argument that Logistar did fulfil the
obligations of the contract.  Are they acting correctly (i.e., do 
we want to encourage this kind of precedent to be set?), completely
aside from the question of whether or not their actions are
presently LEGAL per se (I think this will be decided by the precedent
this case establishes).  

This one is going to have serious repercussions in the legal field,
and I think we all have a stake in the outcome (at least in the
long-run).

Opinions??

(I got this information off of the morning news.  Unfortunately, I
hadn't had a cup of coffee yet, so I was too fuzzy-brained to 
remember if it was CBS or some other network...  Sorry to propagate
news without sources...  But I think this one will be in the evening
papers!)

Kurt Ackermann

"Grey, dear friend, are all your theories;  --Mephisto. in
 the golden tree of life is green!"           Goethe's Faust