Hi all,
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. I’ve been busy with the new house, the 3 month old baby daughter (diapers… don’t talk to me about diapers;-) and much more including ISUG board business and TeamSybase business.
If you’ve been following the latest sybase-l pissing contest discussion between individuals, you may have noted that one party has accused another party of copyright infringement regarding previous discussions and shared information. Whether the accusation is justified or not is debatable.
So… what do you do if you think your intellectual property rights have been violated on an ISUG public forum? Well, let’s take a look at the ISUG Terms of Service:
7.0 MEMBER CONDUCT
Client understands that all information, data, text, software, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages or other materials (”Content”), whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, are the sole responsibility of the person from which such Content originated. This means that the Client, and not the ISUG or its representatives, is entirely responsible for all Content that it uploads, posts, emails, transmits or otherwise makes available via the Service. The ISUG and its representatives do not control the Content posted via the Service and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such Content.
Client agrees to not use the Service to:
** upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially or ethnically objectionable;
** harm minors in any way;
** impersonate any person or entity, including, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent its affiliation with a person or entity;
** forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the Service;
** upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that Client does not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
** upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights (”Rights”) of any party;
** upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” or “pyramid schemes,”;
** upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
** disrupt the normal flow of dialogue, cause a screen to “scroll” faster than other users of the Service are able to type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users’ ability to engage in real time exchanges;
** interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service;
** intentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including, but not limited to, regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, any rules of any national or other securities exchange, including, without limitation, the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ, and any regulations having the force of law;
** “stalk” or otherwise harass another; or
** collect or store personal data about other users.
Client acknowledges that the ISUG and its representatives do not pre-screen Content, but that the ISUG and its representatives shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to reclassify within the Service any Content that is available via the Service. Without limiting the foregoing, the ISUG and its representatives shall have the right to remove any Content that violates the TOS.
Client understands that the technical processing and transmission of the Service, including its Content, may involve (a) transmissions over various networks; and (b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices.
8.0 SPECIAL ADMONITIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL USE
Recognizing the global nature of the Internet, Client agrees to comply with all applicable laws of the United States regarding online conduct and acceptable Content. Specifically, Client agrees to comply with all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which Client resides.
….
19.0 COPYRIGHTS and COPYRIGHT AGENTS
The ISUG and its representatives respect the intellectual property of others, and requires Clients to do the same. If Client believes that its work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or its intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, please provide Socious the following information:
** an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;
** a description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that Client claims has been infringed;
** a description of where the material that Client claims is infringing is located on the site;
** Client’s address, telephone number, and email address;
** a statement by Client that Client has a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
** a statement by Client, that the above information in Client’s notice is accurate and that Client is the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner’s behalf.
Upon receipt of such information, the ISUG and its representatives, at its sole discretion, may perform an investigation and may take appropriate action if it desires.
The paragraphs 7, 8, 19 appear to be relevant and should help direct you with your claim(s) of copyright infringement. When filing a claim of copyright infringement, please be as specific as possible to have your claim(s) resolved.
Listen to this podcast
for the annual ISUG
an ISUG Technical Journal Award? Did you know anyone can write an article for the International Sybase Users’ Group Technical Journal? Do you think you can take his next award from him? Do you have what it takes?!? 
)
essentially a case study of how IBM has interacted as a semi-liason between the business executives and the open source community. IBM, to me, has seemed to be stuck in a love/hate relationship with open source and a dislike/hate relationship with the Free Software Foundation. That being said, it is necessary to give IBM credit giving credence to the open source community with the business executives. The IT folks no longer had to quietly use open source in the business but were free to use it extensively in many places. Linux, in particular, is no longer the wild west in many CTOs’ eyes but a integral part of their business. 
by Jonathan Rockway (ISBN: 978-1-847190-95-6). I also warned him that the book should have gone through another round of proofreading prior to being published due to excessive example code errors, etc. I playfully suggested that 
Moore
Moore conceded that it was unlikely that Microsoft would use the published format as-is but the Office developers would likely base the actually used format off of the published format. Perens, Hall, Bottomley and James Gray all expressed their opinions that this was very typical of Microsoft. (side note: Microsoft has been accused of having the attitude of Embrace, Extend, Eliminate when it comes to industry standards.)
Unfortunately, I was only able to attend the first day as my mother was in town from North Dakota to visit my three month old daughter (and the rest of us). If only I could have cloned myself… Don’t forget to check out the 
