issue
#311
1 October 2002
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a l k i n g a b o u t c a d
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issue
#311
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Reverse
Engineering Halted by Shrinkwrap License: - Graphisoft
Comes to Visit: - Readers
Respond: - From
the Editor: - Below
the Radar, - -
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Reverse Engineering Halted by Shrinkwrap License A recent appeals court decision decided that shrinkwrap licenses trump copyright law in the United States. The court found that Baystate Technology (now CADKEY) had violated the terms of a shrinkwrap license from HLB Technology. American copyright law allows limited amounts of copying; a shrinkwrap license, however, can eliminate that right. (A "shrinkwrap license" forces you into an agreement with the vendor-dictated software license by your act of opening the software package: literally removing the shrinkwrap, or opening the sealed envelope containing the CDs.) In the CAD world, it is common for competitors to leapfrog each other in the features race. They check out the competitors' features, and then decide to implement some of them. Examples include referenced drawings, feature trees, and paperspace. The effect of this ruling means that competitors can no longer copy each other's unprotectable features, if the shrinkwrap license forbids it. The only other case I am familiar with is when Ashlar sued another CAD vendor over its patented Drafting Assistant technology. Companies now pay Ashlar a fee to implement similar technology, such as AutoSnap in AutoCAD, rather than face a possible law suit.
History of the Case In the late 1980s, Harold Bowers of HLB Technology developed a general command template for CADKEY called Cadjet. Younger readers should know that dozens of small developers were creating templates for CAD systems in the 1980s and early 1990s. The templates are placed on the surface of a digitizing tablet; the template allows easy access to a hundred or more commands. The June/Sept '85 issue of 'CADalyst' magazine, for example, had 15 ads for AutoCAD template overlays. The market crashed, however, when Windows made it easy to access toolbar buttons with a mouse, obviating the need for space-intensive and costly digitizing tablets (they took up hundreds of square inches of desk space and cost hundreds of dollars). Around this time, George Ford also designed a CADKEY template for placing GD&T symbols. He called it Geodraft, and received a registered copyright for it. In 1989, Mr Ford offered Geodraft to Mr Bowers, who in 1990 bundled the two templates and associated software, calling the package Designer's Toolkit. Mr Bowers offered his template package to Baystate Technologies in 1988 and 1989, but Baystate rejected the offer, saying it had "the in-house capability to develop the type of product you have proposed." [This is true. Tablet overlays are simple to create, which is why there were so many on the market. Perhaps the biggest hazard was the tedium of coding the 600 or more positions on the overlay.] In 1989, Baystate developed and marketed a template and GD&T [geometric dimensioning and tolerancing] placement package called Draft-Pak. In January 1991, Baystate obtained a copy of Designer's Toolkit, and three months later released Draft-Pak v3, which incorporated many features from Designer's Toolkit. According to court documents, Baystate spent two weeks examining the competitor's product. Both were based on the ANSI Y14.5M standard, which is in the public domain for anyone's use so that companies can exchange drawings and understand each other's use of dimensions and tolerances. But expert witnesses found both had identical deviations from the standard. For example, both used the word "cylindric" instead of "circular", and "flat" instead of "linear." With two near-identical packages on the market, a price war resulted. To survive, Mr Bowers negotiated with CADKEY, Inc. to bundle his product with the CADKEY package. [I assume it was a lite version, because Mr Bowers hoped to profit from users wanting to upgrade.] Baystate pressured CADKEY to drop Mr Bower's product. Later, Baystate bought CADKEY, and eliminated Mr Bower from the CADKEY developer network, "effectively preventing him from developing and marketing the Designer's Toolkit for that program." (More recently, Baystate changed its name to CADKEY, Inc.)
The Court Battle In 1989, Harold Bowers applied for a patent on a template overlay for digitizing tablets used with CAD software. The patent was rejected three times before being awarded. The idea behind the patent was that it accessed commands from a template, avoiding the need to navigate through sub-menus on the screen. It surprises me that the US Patent Office granted the patent, since this had been the primary method of accessing commands in Applicon, Intergraph, and Computervision for ten years prior. On the advice of its lawyers, Baystate in May 1991 sued Mr Bowers, seeking to invalidate his patent covering certain aspects of Designer's Toolkit. Mr Bowers countersued for copyright and patent infringement, and breach of contract. A jury trial awarded Mr Bowers US$5.3 million, including interest. Both sides appealed: Baystate for a "judgment as a matter of law" [JMOL] or for a new trial; Mr Bowers for the court's denial of copyright damages. Baystate contested the damages because the GD&T portion represented less than 2% of the product, as defined by source code line count. (As a side note, in 1993, Mr Bowers requested a reexamination of his patent in light of 'prior art' of a line of templates developed by Summagraphics, the leading digitizer tablet manufacturer of the time. Summagraphics had developed a series of templates for several CAD packages, including Keymaster for CADKEY. The reexamination certificate was issued in late 1997. The irony is that by then almost nobody used templates anymore. ) In 2002, the appeals court denied Baystate's request for JMOL, but did agree that Baystate did not infringe on Mr Bowers' patent. This reduced the judgment by US$233 thousand. You can read the full decision by the court at http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/fed/011108.html . . . An initial press release from Mr Bowers' lawyers trumpeted the upholding of a US$3.8-million award, plus interest. A revised press release, issued a day later, stated more seriously, "This decision has far reaching consequences for the software industry and is an important step forward in protecting the increasingly valuable computer software assets of many companies" <http://www.bannerwitcoff.com/view_release.cfm?press=36>. The problem, however, is that a shrinkwrap license written by a private company now invalidates the provisions of the copyright law written by the representatives of the country's citizens. Baystate's lawyer says: "The fair use right to reverse-engineer is an important aspect of the overall copyright laws. It is part of the national scheme for balancing the author's right to protection with the public's right to know and build upon works of expression." As well, state contract law cannot trump federal copyright law. . . . Getting back to the patent aspect of the case, here is the fine point over which the appeals court decided Baystate did not infringe on Mr Bowers patent: the patent was for a template where all commands were directly accessible "with a single movement of the said button"; the Baystate template had some commands that needed to be accessed with two button clicks. . . . Next week: Reaction to the decision from CADKEY, HLB Technology, and the computer industry. Graphisoft Comes to Visit ArchiCAD 8.0 will be shipping soon, November in North America, and so Graphisoft thought it was time to emphasis the finer points to the CAD media. Chris Barron and Kurt Ameringer visited the offices of upFront.eZine on their way between 'Cadence' and 'Cadalyst' magazines.
State of the Industry It's always interesting to see how a CAD developer has imagined new ways to work with drawings. But it's even more interesting to hear different viewpoints on the industry in which we sleep and breathe. Mr Barron has a wealth of experience, having worked at Softdesk, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, Intergraph, and now Graphisoft. He has seen 'sea changes' that tend to happen when the economy goes bad, as corporations figure out how to become more efficient. In the 80s, it was the switch to CAD; in the 90s, it was the switch to 3D; and perhaps the recession of the 00s will cause the switch to SBM [single building model]. Certainly, the switch to design-build [where one company designs and builds the project] has helped sales of SBM software. Mr Barron talked of how IFCs [industry foundation classes] are slowly having an impact, although perhaps not as Autodesk original intended. Instead of being a mechanism for exchanging architectural objects, it is now being used primarily for data exchange with analysis programs, such as HVAC and BOM. Mr Barron felt that Graphisoft won the lucrative US Coast Guard contract because of ArchiCAD's support for IFCs: it gives the customer assurance that the drawing data will be accessible years from now, even if the CAD package is no longer supported. It is conceivable, he mused, that the 'de facto' file standard may one day shift from DWG to IFC. As for its arch-competitor, Graphisoft has said before that they were glad for Revit Technology to have spent much its investment money on educating potential customers about SBM, saving Graphisoft the effort. (Graphisoft has 120,000 customers.) Now that Revit is part of Autodesk, Mr Barron thinks Graphisoft can capitalize on potential customer confusion over Autodesk's AEC products [Architectural Studio - Architectural Desktop - Revit -3D VIZ - Buzzsaw].
ArchiCAD 8.0 Mr Ameringer walked me through the highlights of the next release of ArchiCAD. Many of the improvements were designed to overcome limitations of SBM, such as:
I hadn't understood 'view sets' from the press release, so Mr Ameringer showed that they are like a named view where you specify which layers are on/off, the viewpoint, the zoom level, and so on. View sets make it easier to show the project to the client and to make plot sets. PlotMaker is still an separate application, but is now easier to use with ArchiCAD. [Having a separate app for plotting drawings is seen as a pain for some, but a distinct advantage for other users.] AutoText makes it easy to populate the title block. PlotMaker includes PDFout at no extra charge. Other features include: direct editing of windows (such as relocation of mullins) and other objects; customizing the dialog boxes (to show greater or fewer options, as well as their location); favorites palette can be im/exported; zero-depth sections; and more. In the future, you can expect ArchiCAD to have more Boolean operations, as well as a link to SketchUp. Readers Respond: Why are Trade Shows Hostile to Students? "In 2000 I brought my son, then a 6th grader. He learned
a lot and was impressed with manufacturing technology. The show
was a great way to teach him about processes. At that time I was
pleasantly surprised that junior high students were allowed to attend.
"I editorialized on the same topic following the last IMTS
show and National Manufacturing Week, which is chock-a-block (yes,
some still use words like that) with neat stuff for design engineers.
"It seems strange, but these attitudes are consistent with
today's policies of CAD vendors. IMHO, the short term profits are
the only important thing. Each quarter they must show results, investors
don't care if adolescents like the product or not.
"The vendors who spend thousands of pounds/dollars on trade
shows are there for a couple of reasons: (1) the overriding purpose
is to get new 'leads'; (2) meet with customers and show off the
new bells and whistles; and (3) market awareness.
"The only reason for keeping minors out of shows is insurance
coverage. There is a clause I've seen in some contracts that voids
ALL coverage if ANY minors are on the show floor. Show management
tends to agree to the clause because it lowers the cost of insurance."
"Can this be because they are a business-to-business forum
where those who invested in show booths expect only potential (and
existing) customers to enter and make more business? Students don't
fit this category.
The editor replies: "Words like 'insurance' and 'lawyers' doesn't explain why some trade shows do, and some don't."
Richard Mandel replies: "If you and I were to collide
our cars together on a highway, and you brought out your lawyers
and I were to bring mine, would they offer the same advice as each
other? And are we obligated to attend to their suggestions?
"It's not the lawyers, it's the actuaries! Insurance policies
ARE available that allow students, but the costs are significantly
higher." From the Editor: 10,000+ Readers! I'm pleased to report that upFront.eZine now reaches more than 10,000 readers each week. A shipment of new 'gleaming blue' upFront.eZine pens has arrived. This new pen has a thicker barrel, a sintered blue finish, black rubber grip, and brass accents. Anyone sending a US$25 donation receives the new pen, along with the traditional Certificate of Appreciation. https://www.paypal.com/affil/pal=ralphg%40xyzpress.com Automated spam blockers continue to plague this e-newsletter. Last week's issue was blocked from a few recipients because it contained the word "p i x" in the URL pointing to my Boston photos. People who compile spam filter lists must really have their minds in the gutter. Or illogical. Some bounceback messages contain a contact email address for appealing the blockage; email sent to the address typically -- wait for it -- is blocked as being spam. Below the Radar A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that I found interesting: Autodesk is getting into the PLM [product lifecycle management] business under the names of Building Lifecycle Management (based on Buzzsaw), Infrastructure Lifecycle Management, and GIS Lifecycle Management. Alibre is distributing 170,000 CDs with 'Design News' magazine, as well as making the CD available from https://www.alibre.com/services/Subscribe/RequestInfo.asp . The CD holds a free 30-day trial of Alibre Design v5, which can then be purchased for US$495 -- "one-tenth the cost of other mid-range solid modeling applications," says the company. In fact, you could get it "free" since the CD offers $495 savings on third-party app. TriTools Partners released a 4.0.4 patch for Visual CADD with bug fixes, some added scripting features, and improved conversion of DWG and Generic CADD files <http://www.tritools.com/VCADD_Patches.htm >. TriTools looks forward to shipping Visual CADD v5 in 2003. Nemetschek North America is shipping release 10 of VectorWorks, RenderWorks, ARCHITECT, and LANDMARK. http://www.nemetschek.net Broderbund is marketing 3D Home Architect Professional v5 (US$90), developed by Cadsoft. Broderbund was recently acquired by Irish-based Riverdeep, a curriculum developer for K–12 and home schools. http://www.riverdeep.net
People/Companies on the Move EDS named Dan Staples as director of the Solid Edge business unit. Bruce Boes was been named global product marketing director for Solid Edge. Stephen Brown joins Solid Edge as president of indirect sales channels in the Americas. James Heppelmann, cto and executive vp at PTC has joined Syncline's board of directors.
Computer News Summaries Windows XP Home and Pro, and Linux kernel 2.4.x or later support 'hyper-threading,' where two CPU cores are placed on a single chip. - Intel Torque Systems <http://www.torque.com > has a 22-inch 9-megapixel LCD monitor (US$8,995) with four times the resolution of Apple's Cinema display. - Digital Photo Newsletter
Market News As predicted by upFront.eZine two months ago, Bentley Systems is withdrawing its proposed initial public offering "in the face of a market that has now apparently turned outright hostile to software company IPOs." The company may reattempt the IPO when conditions improve. Dassault Systemes is investing US$10 million in ImpactXoft, representing an equity position of 15% in the privately-hold company. ImpactXoft's IX SPeeD Suite allows simultaneous product development (concurrent design, modify, evaluate, and produce) via the Web. Speaking of low share prices, several CAD-related companies are currently at ten-year or all-time lows:
EDS has been hit by a class-action suit alleging misrepresentation that artificially inflated the share price. Autodesk completed its acquisition of CAiCE Software
Corporation on Sept 26; it becomes the new Transportation Group
within Autodesk's GIS Solutions Division. APSIS Software AG, 80% owned by Nemetschek, has filed for insolvency in Germany.
Letters to the Editor Re: SolidWorks 2003 -- The Boston Preview "[As
a country becomes more developed, its natural population growth
becomes negative.] This used to concern me deeply. Due to increased
birthrate, the population of the USA is actually growing and will
continue to do so for a while. Nobody expected this: <http://www.economist.com/printedition/Index.cfm?d=20020824
> The editor replies: "In Canada, the fertility rate has fallen to 1.49 children per mother, well below the 2.5 need to sustain the population at zero growth. World population growth is expected to grind to a halt in a couple of decades."
"Your SolidWorks write up was the best article I have read
in a long time, I wished there were 25 pages in the issue.
"TOOOOO much SolidWorks stuff -- page after page after page
after page in issue after issue after issue." The editor replies: "Sounds like a head-in-the-sand CAD user."
"I enjoyed your SolidWorks report very much. Although I
don't work in 3D or MCAD, as a CAD manager I need to keep up with
what the rest of the world is doing. I can't think of a better resource
than upFront.eZine for this task."
"Thanks for the report, Ralph. SolidWorks is certainly a
great competitor, and it is nice to keep the playing field leveled
(on both sides, I'm sure)."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "With 15,484 meetings held and 5,879 reports issued — each in six languages — during the latest two-year budget cycle, UN officials say their workload has become so heavy that it has left them little time to carry out their required tasks, let alone reflect on what their organization is doing and how well it is performing." - Reuters News Agency
Notable Quotable "The greatest problem that religions have today is that people see them as small things, hobbies, easily mastered, lightly worn. The great religions are, on the contrary, 'thick', deep in the sense of profound but, more important, wide in the sense of impinging on all aspects of life." - Digby Anderson,
National Review
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Return to www.upfrontezine.com. Entire contents copyright ©2002 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide. Article reprint fee $500. All trademarks belong to their respective holders. "upFront.eZine," "Talking About CAD," and "On your desktop every Tuesday morning" are trademarks of upFront.eZinePublishing, Ltd. Letters to the editor may be reproduced in an edited form for clarity and brevity. Opinions expressed in letters are not necessarily shared by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. |
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