[Info-vax] Reimplementing VMS, was: Re: HP adds OpenVMS Mature Product Support beyond the end of Standard Support

[Simon Clubley]

On 2014-02-01, David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
> Simon Clubley wrote:
>> 
>> I keep going on about this contaminated information concept because it's
>> _very_ _very_ important in a project of this nature and needs to be
>> handled as part of the project management.
>> 
>
> I see where you're going with "contaminated".  I'm not sure how much of 
> an issue it may be.
>

It's a massive issue.

> I'd guess that if such issues arise, the fight would occur in the USA. 

They have already arisen multiple times over the last several decades and
it's as much to do with copyright law as it is to do with contract law.

The most famous example I can think of was Compaq's reverse engineering
of the IBM PC BIOS into a specification and it's reimplementation using
clean room techniques.

Some reading for you which I have just found:

	http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html

What they call "dirty" on that page is what I call "contaminated".

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world