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

[Neil Palmer <NeilP@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From observations of cases in the US that do make it to court, one would
be surprised to learn that ANY case is ever classified as frivolous !  ;-)

...Neil





thomas@inorbit.com
Sent by: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com
2001/11/21 22:30
Please respond to midrange-l


        To:     midrange-l@midrange.com
        cc:
        Subject:        RE: protect your system from altered or "patched" MI 
programs...


Philip:

On Wed, 21 November 2001, "Hall, Philip" wrote:

> > Why unethical? And what grounds for suit? Code breaks
> > often happen after PTFs. (Review the history of v4r3 DB group PTFs.)
>
> Clearly, and if you've followed any of the posts on Fast400 it would be
> difficult to deny it, they are specifically targeting Fast400 with this
PTF
> to break it.
>
> Using the car analogy people seem to like to use, how different is this
than
> taking your car (which you've changed the EMS to get more power) for its
> regular service, the manufacturer thinks, I don't like this EMS system,
I
> know what I'll do - I'll close the gaps on all the spark plugs so this
EMS
> doesn't work so well...
>
> Is that ethical, is it legal, could you sue ?

I suspect a suit could be made against the service company in your auto
example and even that a suit could be made against IBM. But that's
separate from the question of grounds. I doubt there are grounds for suit
against IBM and I imagine no suit would proceed very far; I'd _almost_
expect it to be declared frivolous immediately.

Tom Liotta

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