RE: protect your system from altered or "patched" MI programs...

I agree with Joe.

You can complain about CFINT and the interactive tax until Windows runs
right; the bottom line is you're bound by IBM's contracts and licensing
agreements because you agreed to the terms and conditions.  While your
organization is burning through millions of legal fees arguing against the
basics of contract law, your competitors are investing in coders, education,
development tools, and maybe even Joe Pluta's ideas.  Okay, you don't like
CFINT; B*F*D.  Even if your contingency fee lawyer could dream up some
horrible "damages", the claim would be dismissed out of hand (every contract
on the planet provides protection against indirect/consequential damages and
lost profits).  So what are you suing for?  The right to use some utility?
Just wait for V5R2, when IBM will change all the internals and Fast400 won't
work any more.

Fast forward a couple of years and transport to the winner's circle, now
occupied by IBM, your lawyers, and your competitors.  Who's the loser (in
the legal and juvenile sense of the word)?  The ones tilting at the CFINT
windmill while carrying the Fast400 banner.

I don't think there are any API's available for Fast400-type functions; a
reasonable interpretation of that situation, given all the other API's
available and supported, is that IBM considers that area of work management
an extension of several IBM-architected boundaries and concepts (trusted
translator, TIMI, etc.).  If it's not documented and not explicitly
supported, you're using the function at your own risk.

But my memory is foggy: did anybody actually use Fast400?  This whole
situation is surreal...look at the mystery surrounding the rise and fall of
Tiger Tools.  If we were approaching April 1, I'd be thinking Fast400, the
Loch Ness monster, crop circles, Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, and the
"Taster's Choice" couple are cut from the same cloth.  Otherwise, it might
be nothing more than an amusing exercise in poking IBM with a sharp stick to
see if Big Blue will blink in the early 2002 announcements.

Most of us will be eating turkey tomorrow; some will be eating crow when
V5R2 hits!

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com
[mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Joe Pluta
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 11:10 PM
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: RE: protect your system from altered or "patched" MI
programs...


I'd just like to point out the facts of the situation:

If you rewrite your code to run as client/server, IBM is OK with it.  If you
use something like my tool that makes changes at the source level to change
your user interface, IBM is OK with it.  If you hack the operating system to
circumvent the licensing agreement, IBM is not OK with it.

Moral and ethical arguments notwithstanding, the reality of the situation is
that IBM is pushing us to move away from the green screen.  Not that reality
is always the best argument to use on this list <grin>, but it seems to me
that the energy spent complaining about the situation would be better used
helping work on a transition architecture.

Take that with the grain of salt it deserves given my position, but it sure
seems that any more conversation spent arguing about this PTF is sheer
wasted effort.

Joe Pluta
www.plutabrothers.com

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