Path: sparky!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!VNET.IBM.COM!soyring
From: soyr...@VNET.IBM.COM ("John A. Soyring")
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Reply to Mr. Gordon Letwin
Message-ID: <9207301340.AA15405@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 30 Jul 92 13:37:36 GMT
Sender: dae...@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 68
Dear Mr. Letwin:
The attached note was appended to comp.os.os2.misc identifying you as the
author. Since the attached note states that either you, or one of your bosses,
received "threatening letters" from IBM lawyers, I wanted to be sure that
we investigated this matter.
IBM's lawyers have searched our files and they have found no letters sent
to you -- on any subject. To the best of their recollections, they recall
sending no such letters to you.
Would you please send to me copies of the letters you reported. Or please
send to me the name of the attorney who signed the letter and the date
of the letter. I will be happy to have this followed up for you since
you were expecting a reply.
Sincerely,
John A. Soyring
Director, IBM Software Development Programs
IBM Corporation
11400 Burnet Road
Austin, TX 78758
soyr...@vnet.ibm.com
Attachment:
*************************************************************************
Subject: Re: Paid Microsoft employees
From: gord...@microsoft.com (Gordon Letwin)
Message-ID: <1992Jul21.233140.5...@microsoft.com>
Date: 21 Jul 92 23:31:40 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation
References: <1992Jul11.233516.3...@microsoft.com>
<1992Jul14.072423.8...@rz.uni-hildesheim.de>
<1992Jul15.061138.1...@midway.uchicago.edu>
To make things perfectly clear, I don't give a hoot about such "ravings"
and "unmittigated bull", myself. However, two different IBM lawyers sent
me threatening letters trying to force me off of the net. This was in
response to my posting about the amount of assembly language in the product.
Note that the civilized way, if you're unhappy with someone's posts, is
to complain to them and ask them to moderate their behavior. You then
fall back on the legal threats if and only if:
1) your complaint is valid and your threats are real, and
2) you've exhausted less drastic means
IBM went directly to the serious legal threats, written to folks who
they assumed were my bosses, hoping to get me fired. More, they had
no basis for the complaints; their arguments were unmitigated bullshit.
So I sent them a little reply about IBM's postings on the net. The
above examples are excerpted from page after page of stuff that I sent back.
I said that I had been laughing off the personal attacks by IBM, but
since IBM was talking major damage suits as an appropriate response to
postings then it seemed like a good idea to me...
I never heard back from the IBM lawyer, but I have noticed a quieting
of IBM postings. Perhaps there's a correlation.
By the way; this has nothing to do with Larry Solomon's departure from IBM.
gordon letwin
not a spokesperson for microsoft
*************************************************************************
From: soyring@VNET.IBM.COM ("John A. Soyring")
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Gordon Letwin
Message-ID: <9207300204.AA20979@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 30 Jul 92 01:46:13 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 72
Dear Mr. Letwin:
The attached note was appended to comp.os.os2.misc identifying you as the
author. Since the attached note states that either you, or one of your bosses,
received "threatening letters" from IBM lawyers, I wanted to be sure that
we investigated this matter.
IBM's lawyers have searched our files and they have found no letters sent
to you -- on any subject. To the best of their recollections, they recall
sending no such letters to you.
Would you please send to me copies of the letters you reported. Or please
send to me the name of the attorney who signed the letter and the date
of the letter. I will be happy to have this followed up for you since
you were expecting a reply.
Sincerely,
John A. Soyring
Director, IBM Software Development Programs
IBM Corporation
11400 Burnet Road
Austin, TX 78758
soyring@vnet.ibm.com
Attachment:
*************************************************************************
Subject: Re: Paid Microsoft employees
From: gordonl@microsoft.com (Gordon Letwin)
Message-ID: <1992Jul21.233140.5660@microsoft.com>
Date: 21 Jul 92 23:31:40 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation
References: <1992Jul11.233516.3604@microsoft.com>
<1992Jul14.072423.8768@rz.uni-hildesheim.de>
<1992Jul15.061138.1074@midway.uchicago.edu>
To make things perfectly clear, I don't give a hoot about such "ravings"
and "unmittigated bull", myself. However, two different IBM lawyers sent
me threatening letters trying to force me off of the net. This was in
response to my posting about the amount of assembly language in the product.
Note that the civilized way, if you're unhappy with someone's posts, is
to complain to them and ask them to moderate their behavior. You then
fall back on the legal threats if and only if:
1) your complaint is valid and your threats are real, and
2) you've exhausted less drastic means
IBM went directly to the serious legal threats, written to folks who
they assumed were my bosses, hoping to get me fired. More, they had
no basis for the complaints; their arguments were unmitigated bullshit.
So I sent them a little reply about IBM's postings on the net. The
above examples are excerpted from page after page of stuff that I sent back.
I said that I had been laughing off the personal attacks by IBM, but
since IBM was talking major damage suits as an appropriate response to
postings then it seemed like a good idea to me...
I never heard back from the IBM lawyer, but I have noticed a quieting
of IBM postings. Perhaps there's a correlation.
By the way; this has nothing to do with Larry Solomon's departure from IBM.
gordon letwin
not a spokesperson for microsoft