Charles Finley
Transformix Computer Corporation
145 Vallecitos de Oro
Suite 201
San Marcos, CA  92069
(760) 736-7001
fax (760) 736-7014

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shawn Gordon [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2000 9:51 AM
> To: Charles Finley; [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] Powerhouse to COBOL, C++ or C
>
>
> At 09:37 AM 9/21/2000, Charles Finley wrote:
> >Rich Trapp said:
> > > Wasn't something like this done before which resulted in a
> law suite from
> > > Cognos?
> >Tymlabs had the Powerhouse compiler.  They advertised it as an
> alternative
> >to buying Powerhouse.  In other words, they told customers to continue to
> >develop using the Powerhouse languages. If I recall correctly, I believe
> >that Cognos alleged a copyright violation on the languages.  They own the
> >languages not the resultant code, according to them, they are
> the only ones
> >who can build a compiler for their languages.
>
> however, you can continue to develop in Powerhouse then, and use
> this step
> as a compile process, much like PERCobol supposedly does, develop
> in COBOL
> and generate Java.  Cognos can make the same argument that they are
> essentially providing a royalty free compilation process.
I discussed this with our customer and it seems that they believe that they
can develop a translator and license it to perform translations from any
programming language to any other programming language.  However, they are
not the police.
If, as you say, one or more of their customers uses the translator to enable
themselves to develop in Powerhouse without Powerhouse licenses, my customer
as the provider of a translatory believes that the resulting legal issue, if
any, is between the end-user and Cognos.  If you use are GM car to
deliberately run someone down, the name GM is conspicuous by it's absence
from the resulting legal action against you.

There are many customers who are prepared to translate the code to a target
language and abandon Powerhouse entirely.  It's not up to my customer, the
enabler,  to sort them out from those who want to stay with Powerhouse and
just not pay fees.

BTW, Tymlabs did not have enough money to defend themselves against Cognos.
There was never a legal decision, only a settlement in order to avoid
additional legal expenses.