IBM Faces DOJ Antitrust Inquiry On Mainframes 190
Several sources are reporting that IBM is facing an antitrust inquiry from the US Department of Justice due to a supposed refusal to issue mainframe OS licenses to competitors. "Part of CCIA's complaint stems from the tech giant's treatment of former competitor Platform Solutions. IBM had little competition in the mainframe market when Platform Solutions, early this decade, began work on servers that could mimic the behavior of more expensive IBM mainframes, CCIA said. Platform Solutions, based on past mainframe agreements between IBM and the DOJ, requested copies of IBM's OS and technical information under a licensing agreement. IBM declined to grant Platform Solutions a license and prohibited customers from transferring IBM software licenses to Platform Solutions machines, said CCIA, which has members that are potential competitors of IBM."
If Slashdot were fifty years old.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Interoperability (Score:2, Interesting)
I never understood how companies could get in trouble for not sharing interoperability information. If I was trying to shut out my competitors, I would offer the information as a license and just charge a stupidly high amount for it.
Platform Solutions: We want to make compatible hardware. Give us documents
IBM: No.
Platform Solutions: Fine, we'll sue.
IBM: Ok. Here is the docs. You owe us $1,000,000,000 to use them
It works well for keeping Joe blow from writing software for consoles, I don't see why it wouldn't work well elsewhere.
(unless some other company tried it and got cut down in court.)
Re:Bad news for Apple? (Score:4, Interesting)
Technically, anything proprietary is monopolistic...
If you're the ONLY one making [mainframes/Macintosh/widget Z], wouldn't that make you an automatic monopoly?
If someone wants to make a work-a-like/compatible product to your proprietary product, are you bound to oblige?
Re:Bad news for Apple? (Score:1, Interesting)
It isn't different. I think it will be difficult to show that IBM has any kind of monopoly on computers nowadays. The classification as "mainframe" is now fairly useless since clustered computers (like what Platform is trying to use) serve the same role.
Re:Bad news for Apple? (Score:3, Interesting)
What I'd find equally interesting is how such a decision could affect game console manufacturers. There are already third party/cloned NES,SNES, and Genesis systems but those are all for obsolete platforms that I doubt Sega OR Nintendo really care much about anymore.
However, it would be interesting to see a clone Xbox 360, or a clone PS3, etc. If the road were legally clear to make them (such as if a precedence were set by a lawsuit like this one), then I'd bet we'd see clones of such systems out of Taiwan within a year or two. Heck I'm surprised that SOME company over there hasn't made a 3rd party Mac-compatible motherboard.
Re:It's the OS (Score:4, Interesting)
Cloning a mainframe doesn't mean cloning the operating system. Cloning a mac doesn't mean cloning the OS - I can make a workalike mac but apple still wont license me the software.
I think that's the crux of the case though. Depending on how courts decide on the issue, refusing to license the software to run on compatible hardware from a third party could be construed as an anti-competitive behavior. Precedent was set with Bell for splitting up a company to solve the issue. It would be interesting to see a court ordered separation of the hardware and software divisions of both IBM and Apple.
Re:Bad news for Apple? (Score:2, Interesting)
If someone wants to make a work-a-like/compatible product to your proprietary product, are you bound to oblige?
You can't stop them. All you can stop them from doing is using your trademarks, copyrighted material, and patented processes/devices.
If you have a monopoly on your widgets and abuse that monopoly, then you are in trouble with the DoJ and may in fact be forced to help your competetitors learn how to make widget clones.
Re:I see a business oportunity (Score:4, Interesting)
In fact, there is project like that:
http://www.z390.org/ [z390.org]
But as a mainframe programmer, I can tell you, z/OS is horribly complex due to backward compatibility going back to System/360. So implementing a complete and reliable solution is not an easy task.
Re:Hercules is part of it, too (Score:1, Interesting)
I'd mod you up if I could log in right now
I think it would be in IBM's best interest to provide low-cost licenses for their OS and associated software (CICS, DB2, RACF, etc.) specifically to run on Hercules for hobbyist/educational/development purposes
Mainframe folks are a dying breed - riding on an open source alternative might help turn this around
Re:Here we go again (Score:3, Interesting)
Your point was?
Republicans are lax about enforcing laws against corporations. They're only "tough on crime" when the criminal is a poor person, if the criminal is a corporation they get off the hook scott free. We're not talking about the legislature here, we're talking about the Executive branch. Clinton's DoJ prosecuted Microsoft, and Bush's DoJ let them off without so much as a slap on the wrist.
We had a Republican in the White House for eight years, during this time nothing was done about IBM's abusive monopoly. Now that there's a Democrat there there is some investigation being done (remember, Obama has only been in office for 9 months and this stuff doesn't move quickly).
Mind you, I'm no fan of either mainstream party, but the Democrats at least pay lip service to companies and peoiple making less than a million dollars a year. IIRC I voted for the Libertarian last election.
Re:If Slashdot were fifty years old.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, given those circumstances, where's the DOJ Antitrust Inquiry into Apple for OSX licensing?
Re:Hercules is part of it, too (Score:3, Interesting)
I've argued for an IBM mainframe software personal use license for a decade, inspired by the OpenVMS hobbyist license. It's fallen on deaf ears.