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[LUG] JMRI copyright issue.

 

Hi

Some of you have been kind enough to show an interest in the problems that out 
Model Railway Software is having.  For those interested I have inclosed a 
copy of Bobs last letter.  It is interesting as not only is KAN attacking us, 
he has also stolen (?) our domain name, and almost copied and pasted some of 
our definitions into his program (omitting only the licencing details).

I personally think this battle is really what it is all about, and if the 
community  loose this one, Microsoft and the rest have it on a plate.

Peter


I've redone the web pages that describe the ongoing legal struggle
between Matt Katzer and me.

First, I'd like to reiterate something I've said before about all
this. I'm providing this information as an update for interested
people, not as the seed for a flame-war. So far, this has been a
dispute between Matt Katzer et al and myself. He has not acted
against anybody else in the larger JMRI community. I would prefer
that the jmriusers, jmri-developers, etc, mailing lists _not_ become
active parts of this dispute. Those lists have much more important
roles to play in supporting users, helping to extend the software,
etc. Let's keep those lists focused on the present & future, rather
than the past.

For those of you who are interested in following this more closely,
you can now find more information from this top-level page:
<<http://jmri.sf.net/k/index.html>http://jmri.sf.net/k/index.html>

For the entire history, please see the updates page, which is also
where we post new info as it happens:
<<http://jmri.sf.net/k/updates.html>http://jmri.sf.net/k/updates.html>

A particularly interesting part of the story is that Matt Katzer and
KAM Industries have been shipping JMRI decoder definitions as part of
their "Decoder Commander" product, without giving JMRI any credit for
it. For information on some of the evidence for that, please see:
<<http://jmri.sf.net/k/copycomparison.html>http://jmri.sf.net/k/copycomparison.h\
tml>

Matt is claiming that copyright law doesn't apply to his misuse of
the JMRI decoder definitions, and that JMRI isn't protected against
his infringement by our license:
<<http://jmri.sf.net/k/updates.html#2006-09-27>http://jmri.sf.net/k/updates.html\
#2006-09-27>

We're fighting that, of course, along with the his bogus patents,
cybersquatting, etc. To all the people who've helped with time, money
or moral support, thank you. It's likely to be a long, difficult
struggle, but I have no intention of giving up. This is just too
important.

Bob
--
Bob Jacobsen +1-510-486-7355 fax +1-510-643-8497 AIM, Skype JacobsenRG

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