Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!wesommer
From: wesommer@bloom-beacon.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Cloning the new IBMs without violating copyrights
Message-ID: <489@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 28-Apr-87 20:53:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: bloom-be.489
Posted: Tue Apr 28 20:53:56 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Apr-87 01:53:06 EDT
References: <766@vaxwaller.UUCP> <2643@phri.UUCP> <3087@diku.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: wesommer@athena.mit.edu (William Sommerfeld)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 30

In article <3087@diku.UUCP> thorinn@diku.UUCP (Lars Henrik Mathiesen) writes:
>  I was told (by a salesperson, but it still may contain some truth) that one
>of the main obstacles to making a fully compatible clone was this:
>  When you use a System/2 as terminal equipment against an IBM mainframe, one
>of the commands in the protocol says "Please send the copyright message in
>your ROM;" the mainframe checks this against whatever it is on a System/2,
>and won't communicate if it's not the same.

That's real nice of them.  I guess that makes the copyright message
part of the communications protocol.  Does this also mean that
everything else sent as part of the login session becomes copyrighted
by IBM, and that the software on the other end is violating copyright
law by stripping out the message??  Get real!

>  This would prevent the use of clones with IBM terminal software, unless the
>cloners can find an excuse to have a verbatim copy of IBM's copyright message
>in their ROMs; of course they could reverse engineer the software as well,
>but this may put a cramp in their style.

How about this:  Embed the following message in the ROM:

Copyright (C) 1987 Clonz-R-Us.  We did this one ourselves with no help
from Big Blue - It's not Copyright (C) 1987 IBM.  All rights reserved.

where "Copyright (C) 1987 IBM.  All rights reserved." is the string
one needs to include in the protocol... and only send the last part over.

					Bill Sommerfeld
				  ARPA: wesommer@athena.mit.edu
				  UUCP: ...!mit-eddie!wesommer