[LINK] Software copyright does matter

[Jan Whitaker]

If you don't think that software licenses matter, you may want to ask some 
car owners in New Jersey. Read on:

>http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71554-0.html?tw=rss.index
>Giant Robot Imprisons Parked Cars
>
>By Quinn Norton
>
>The robot that parks cars at the Garden Street Garage in Hoboken, New 
>Jersey, trapped hundreds of its wards last week for several days. But it 
>wasn't the technology car owners had to curse, it was the terms of a 
>software license.
>
>The garage is owned by the city; the software, by Robotic Parking of 
>Clearwater, Florida.
>
>In the course of a contract dispute, the city of Hoboken had police escort 
>the Robotic employees from the premises just a few days before the 
>contract between both parties was set to expire. What the city didn't 
>understand or perhaps concern itself with, is that they sent the company 
>packing with its manuals and the intellectual property rights to the 
>software that made the giant robotic parking structure work.
>
>The Hoboken garage is one of a handful of fully automated parking 
>structures that make more efficient use of space by eliminating ramps and 
>driving lanes, lifting and sliding automobiles into slots and shuffling 
>them as needed. If the robot shuts down, there is no practical way to 
>manually remove parked vehicles.
>
>In the days that followed, both sides dragged each other into court. 
>Robotic accused Hoboken of violating its copyright. "This case is about 
>them using software without a license," said Dennis Clarke, chief 
>operating officer of Robotic Parking, in a telephone interview last week.
>
>At the same time, Hoboken accused Robotic of setting booby traps in the 
>code, causing the garage to malfunction. Then Robotic accused Hoboken of 
>endangering its business by allowing a competitor into the garage.
>
>In the meantime, many of the garage's customers simply couldn't get their 
>cars out...

Jan Whitaker
JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
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'Seed planting is often the most important step. Without the seed, there is 
no plant.' - JW, April 2005
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