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Compuware Brings IBM to Antitrust Court
pcs305 writes "
According to a news article at Yahoo, Compuware is accusing IBM of stealing code and copying Compuware manuals. They also accuse IBM of being a monopoly in the mainframe market and of anti-competitive behaviour.
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Well being a mainframe programmer, and on top of that, being an employee of Compuware, I know that in many shops, source code is included with the product to allow the client to make modifications to suit their own unique environment. In addition to that, IBM Global Services maintain the data centers where a lot of these applications are housed so they could easily gotten their hands on any applicable source code. Don't think of these applications like you would personal application on your home PC. Lisences can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars and with that price often comes the ability to alter code to meet specifications. In order to do that Source code must be provided.
I still find it interesting that only a few years ago the rumors were flying that IBM may possibly purchase Compuware. Who knows how much truth there is to those rumors. We may not have the clout that IBM has but I know our CEO to be a much more personalble individual that ALWAYS stands up for what he believes in.
Agreed.
I work for UPS, and we're currently working with the Teamsters Union on contract negotiations for all of our union employees. FedEx has taken the opportunity to lure some of our current customers away from us, by talking up the possibility of another strike like the one in '97. It's so remote as to be almost an impossibility (that strike caused a huge financial dent in the Teamsters' strike reserves), but it doesn't stop them from using it as a marketing tool.
Should UPS sue FedEx over their sales force's marketing tactics? I don't think so. Most of my fellow employees don't think so either. We'll simply press on and complete the negotiations, while we continue delivering the packages, same as always. If we can't, we sink. Simple as that.
Business is a fairly brutal Darwinian process sometimes, and if Compuware can't handle the fact that IBM's sales weasels are slick fast-talkers, maybe they should find another line of work. I hear that selling watercress sandwiches in front of the airport is pretty lucrative...
They that would sacrifice their
It has nothing todo with this article, which means its an advertisement. Such an action calls in to question the validity(sp?) of the AC's post. I suggest he be modded down.
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What is the sound of this sentence?
Yet again, you haven't appreciated that the hardware cost of an s/390 is only a small proportion of the cost to IBM of delivering an s/390. The marginal cost of adding 5 processors when you have the fab up and running is negligible when compared to the cost of R&D, software development, marketing, support, building and tooling the plant etc. yes, the margin is big, but not that big.
"The new wave is not value-added; it's garbage-subtracted" - Esther Dyson, Dec 1994
It may be a bit offtopic, but since you asked (and hey, this is Slashdot after all)...
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