upFront.eZine News Archives

ITC vs Gstarsoft, Round 2

Issue #1,035   |  January 6, 2020

 

by Ralph Grabowski   Some years ago, Autodesk launched a law suit against CAD software vendor ZwSoft. The American company alleged that the Chinese one had copied its source code. The suspicion arose after a rare bug in AutoCAD involving the Hatch command exhibited identical behavior in ZwCAD. The suit ended in resolution, whereby ZwSoft agreed to allow Autodesk to check the source code three months before any release. The blame was placed on an employee who had borrowed the code, rather than write it from scratch. For ZwSoft, this event was a setback. The company had originally relied on the IntelliCAD Technical Consortium for its code base, but then went through the arduous process of rewriting all its code from scratch to become independent of the ITC, just as Bricsys had done a few years earlier. Creating its own code would allow ZwSoft to change direction in the crowded field of AutoCAD workalikes.  After the lawsuit ended, the company returned to the ITC, using it as an umbrella against further legal action. The feature set of ZwCAD again aligned to that of IntelliCAD.    ITC vs GstarSoft, v2015 The umbrella of the ITC, however, isn't always a shield; it can also be a sword. The ITC has now twice launched law suits against another Chinese CAD software firm, GstarSoft, once in 2015 and again last month. GstarSoft followed a similar route as ZwSoft and Bricsys, changing the code from IntelliCAD to its own version, proudly announcing that the process took three years and hundreds of programmers. The new code base is called GstarCAD8, where the '8' is actually the infinity symbol.  To check GstarSoft's claim of all-new code, the ITC requested that it be allowed to audit the code, in accordance with the ITC membership agreement that GstarSoft had signed. The Chinese company objected to being singled out in this way, saying the action would cause customers in China to lose confidence in it; it proposed that all other Chinese CAD firms using IntelliCAD code should also be audited during the same time period. The ITC prevailed in Oregon court, winning a judgment of $273,892, which GstarSoft did not pay. As a result, GstarSoft cannot operate in the USA, and, I would presume, cannot operate in jurisdictions that have court order enforcement agreements with the USA. You can read interviews with the two antagonists from back then: upFront.eZine (2015): www.upfrontezine.com/2015/05/itc-vs-gstarsoft.html CADalyst (2016): www.cadalyst.com/cad/other-2d-cad/gstarsoft-claims-forged-evidence-influenced-proceedings-vows-strike-back-itc-new-la ITC vs GStarSoft, v2019 Now the ITC is back with a second lawsuit against the GstarSoft. It asks the Oregon court for enforcement of the first judgement, repeats earlier claims (that GstarSoft used IntelliCAD code in its GstarCAD8 program, and that it is refusing an audit to determine whether code had been copied), but then adds this remarkable claim: that GstarSoft is soliciting ITC members to switch from IntelliCAD to GstarCAD8. First page of case 3:19-cv-01963   The court document lists... Evidence of copying -- 'icad' and 'ic' identifiers appear in code, documentation, and/or support files. If GstarCAD8 were indeed truly written from scratch, then 'ICAD' and 'ic' would not normally appear, although they might be present in a limited number of cases to maintain compatibility with IntelliCAD, such as BricsCAD reading .icm IntelliCAD menu files.  Evidence of 'ICAD' in the help file for GstarCAD Evidence of solicitation -- none provided. This time, the ITC wants the judge to throw the book at GstarCAD, asking for  Three counts of at least $10 million in damages each for copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, and breach of fiduciary duty Costs Immediate injunction against sales in the USA As well, the ITC wants the court to order the Chinese company to  Stop selling GstarCAD throughout the world, and to destroy all copies Write to all customers (about 600 thousand), telling them to stop using the software Assign the source code to Iron Mountain as the independent caretaker Report all financial and sales information regarding GstarCAD8 Shut down gstarcad.net (the English language Web site) and all other sites selling the software Here is the document filed by the ITC with the court in early December: www.intellicad.org/hubfs/GStar/1%20Complaint.pdf   Statement From Gstarsoft by Meiyu Huang Regarding the recent ongoing intellectual property litigation between Gstarsoft Co., Ltd. and the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium in the U.S., Gstarsoft hereby makes the following statement: 1. The current GstarCAD is developed by near hundred programmers of Gstarsoft via years of hard work. Gstarsoft owns the intellectual property rights of GstarCAD and the copyrights have been registered and certificated by the PRC [China] Copyright Administration. With the continuous efforts of Gstarsoft and its partners, GstarCAD has been recognized by the market and has obtained certain fame among the relevant users. 2. As a software enterprise, Gstarsoft always attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property and abides by global intellectual property rules. Since its establishment nearly 30 years ago, Gstarsoft has been recognized by many authoritative organizations at home and abroad, including the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). 3. Gstarsoft has had no connection with the ITC since it quit the organization in 2015. In December 2019, the ITC filed a lawsuit against Gstarsoft alleging intellectual property infringement, which lacked facts and legal basis. We believe that Gstarsoft has the confidence and ability to defend the lawsuit and to strongly counter the ITC’s allegations. 4. Since April 2019, the ITC and some of its members began to harass Gstarsoft’s partners and customers frequently and actively both inside and outside of China, spreading false information, and sending contents of the complaint before the lawsuit is heard by the court. Such behavior has completely separated from the intellectual property litigation itself, and turned the litigation into a mean for some of its members to conduct unfair competition against Gstarsoft with the intention to damage the business and product reputation of Gstarsoft. 5. Against the aforesaid unfair competition behaviors of the ITC and its offending members, Gstarsoft has retained all relevant evidence and intends to take legal actions as soon as possible to investigate the organizations and individuals that continue to spread false information in bad faith through legal means, including but not limited to demanding compensation for all direct and indirect economic losses of Gstarsoft. [Meiyu Huang is Gstarsoft vp of international business development.] What Ralph Grabowski Thinks IntelliCAD is not open-source software, even though it has that reputation, perhaps because the ITC is a non-profit organization. It is closed-source, with the source code guarded by confidentiality agreements signed by staff and member companies. ITC members can expand on the IntelliCAD code, but cannot combine it with software that competes with the ITC. One part of the membership agreement states that the ITC can audit the software of members -- and ex-members -- to ensure that no breach has occurred. - - - When I investigated that GstarCAD8 release (equivalent to GstarCAD v2013-4), I found references to 'icad' in the documentation, but not in the program. For instance, the documentation stated that the Program and Product system variables return 'icad', but when I entered the two sysvars at the command prompt, the program returned 'gcad' and 'GstarCAD' respectively. Similarly, the documentation for the Linetype command refers to icad.lin but the program provides and uses gcad.lin; there is no icad.lin file. I searched the program's .exe file and three largest .dll files with a hex editor, but found no references to 'icad'.  The follow-up releases, GstarCAD 2015 through 2020, also contain references to 'icad' in the help files. The ITC notes that GstarCAD contains commands and system variables unique to IntelliCAD. I found that this was true through to GstarCAD 2020. However, DWG editors such as ARES (not based on IntelliCAD), BricsCAD (originally based on IntelliCAD but no more) and IntelliCAD contain system variables originally unique to AutoCAD so that they can be compatible with one another. Software companies are permitted to copy each other's user interface, as established by a law suit going back to the days of Lotus 1-2-3. What they cannot copy is the code that operates behind the interface. - - - The ITC has shown that elements of the GstarCAD8 platform copy IntelliCAD's UI, and so it is asking to court that it be able to examine the underlying code -- or else be paid compensation. Should the ITC win a second time, GstarSoft is likely ignore the ruling a second time, in my opinion. In the meantime, Gstarsoft threatens legal action against the ITC and ITC members its says were harassing it. So, what is the point to this new law suit? I think that the ITC's legal representation, Harris Berne Christensen LLP, is sending the message that the ITC vigorously defends its product. Meanwhile, under the threat of a $30 million judgement, Gstarsoft awakens a dormant motivation to counter-sue.  Thank You, Readers Thank you to readers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine: Hakan Lothigius, Sweden S Bumbalo To support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $150 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/150 $750 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/750 Should Paypal.me not operate in your country, then please use www.paypal.com and the account of [email protected]. Or mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada. Notable Quotable "We're backing it in case it's the next next big thing."     - Management Speak (@managerspeak on Twitter)

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Italian Architects Protest Uber-ization Of Design

Issue #865

 

by Ralph Grabowski With informal labour services like Uber and AirBnB, outsourcing is no longer international; it's right down our street. This same style of downscaling of incomes is attacking us at the professional level, where companies offer to write your blog cheaper than you can, and programmers bid to be paid less than their compatriots (c.f. Verstata's Think3). In Italy, the architect's union has asked the government to block CoContest over its service that bypasses the use of locally registered professional architects. Or as PC World neatly put it, "Italy's architectural elite moves to rub out crowdsourcing design site": "Nine lawmakers -- eight of them architects -- have issued a parliamentary proposal urging the Economic Development and Justice Ministries to crack down on the [CoContest] crowdsourcing website, which they said was carrying out an illegal intermediation activity and denigrating professional architects in its publicity, presenting them as elderly, incompetent and expensive." (In Milan, taxi associations got UberPop car-sharing banned "on the grounds that it constituted unfair competition and put the safety of passengers at risk.") On the other side of the aisle, CoContest calls itself "the first crowdsourcing platform for interior design"; the site does not use the word "architect." The founders are an architect and a lawyer, who launched the service as a way for unemployed designers to get work in a manner similar to the way most companies do it: through bidding.  In defending themselves, CoContest points out that Italy suffers from 44% unemployment among youth in a country that operates protected markets, such as for taxi drivers and architects. But one of CoContest's shareholders admits that his company "now is enjoying huge success in the US," implying that young Italian architects might not be benefiting as much as his company otherwise claims. Indeed, the site would like to benefit from large clients, such as retailers and real estate developers. While some of the designers who work through CoContest are registered architects from Italy; most are not. It may be work, but the pay is not at a professional level. In an interview printed in CoContest's own blog, an Italian registered architect complained about the biggest problem in working through CoContest: "Above all, the prize [payouts] are far too low, and the costs and benefits are all to the advantage of the client." Sources:  www.pcworld.com/article/2928892/italys-architectural-elite-moves-to-rub-out-crowdsourcing-design-site.html www.economyup.it/startup/2606_cocontest-perche-una-startup-fa-paura-agli-architetti.htm magazine.cocontest.com How CoContest Works CoContest say they've signed up 20,000 interior designers from 100 countries to bid on work submitted by home owners. They promise that owners receive "about" ten proposals within a week. This is how it works: An owner signs up at the site, and then defines a project. The owner specifies the price (taken from a matrix of options), provides a description of the project in preferably two languages, and a sketch of the floorplan; CoContest recommends owners upload as many photographs as possible. Designers submit their proposals to owners within a week; a chat section lets designers ask questions about project details. Owners rate the top three designs, and then choose one. The winning designer is paid the agreed-upon amount; the others designers are not. The owner gets access to the detailed plans from the winning designer only, to help prevent IP theft. How CoContest Pays Twenty-five projects are active currently. The site has so far hosted 384 projects, paying out $226,474 -- works out to an average of $590 per project. Or, as the owner of a New York loft boasted, "It was great, I received 25 projects for only $500." CoContest sets the minimum fee that owners can offer designer. It ranges from $300 to $2,500, depending on the area and amount of work involved. For example, $300 is the fee for redesigning a bathroom with a plan and list of furnishings. CoContest calls this amount of work the Concept package. Should owners want more, like section views and high quality renderings, then the minimum price goes to $550 (the Project package). Add finishing, colors, lighting, and price quotes, and the cost is $800 (Advanced package). But, as CoContext advises, "You are free to adjust the minimum offer for your Advanced project, gaining even more visibility among the designers community with immediate results."  Pricing is illogical, jumping up and down seemingly at random. The concept price for an entire house is just $150 more than a bathroom: Examples of Minimum Pricing Package        Concept     Project       Advanced  Bathroom       $300        $  550        $  800 Small House    $450        $1,150        $1,650 Garden         $500        $  750        $  950 Retail Store   $600        $1,600        $2,100 Library        $700        $1,250        $2,000 CoContest takes 25% (or 5% -- the amount is not clear to me) for itself. The company is running on $240,000 in funding, most recently in April. Our request to speak with CoContest was ignored by the company. https://www.cocontest.com   What Ralph Grabowski Thinks A publisher from England once asked me to write a book on 3D CAD. We began working on the specs, but after pushing paperwork across the Atlantic a couple of times, I clued in that they hadn't mentioned the pay. They told me that I was expected to provide a price, as were other authors competing for the same work. Lowest bid would the writing job, and I quit the process.  The concept behind CoContest is that owners who can't afford typical architect fees can get a design for cheap, while designers who can't get work have an opportunity to be paid for working. CoContest say that owners receive about a ten proposals from designers. So this means nine designers do work for which they are not paid.  Or put another way, they get paid for one out of every ten designs they submit. Or, put yet another way, if a design takes a week to complete, they get paid once every 2.5 months for a week's worth of work. Running just 25 projects concurrently among 20,000 signed-up hopefuls, CoContest is too tiny to make a difference -- let alone kill the hyper-local market in which architects and interior designers traditionally work. By paring remote designers and distant owners through a Web site, CoContest leaves itself, owners, and designers open to design flaws owing to communications that are degraded compared to an on-site presence.  Young designers can benefit from CoContest by bulking up their resumes with real-world projects they've bid on, but a Web site is not going to be pulling them out of south European unemployment. And One More Thing... REDWAY3D is supporting Oculus Rift's Development Kit 2 through its REDsdk[software development kit] providing stereoscopy to virtual reality environments, specifically real-time visualization and photo-realistic rendering. And that's all the detail we got. www.redway3d.com Even More News Read the blog at WorldCAD Access as I write more about the CAD industry, and give tips on using hardware and software. You can also keep up with the blog through RSS feeds and email alerts. These are some of the articles that appeared on WorldCAD Access during the last week: The best apps that I'm running on my Android today Effortless rooting of Android devices  I'm also on Twitter at @upfrontezine  throughout the day with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary, such as.... upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine) Jun 24: "... hiding behind algorithms is increasingly untenable as well. For one, algorithms are made by humans." -> https://stratechery.com/2015/curation-and-algorithms/ Thank You, Subscribers! Thank you to you subscribers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine: Scott Stratford Chris Sweetnam of Trix Systems Jim Balding of The ANT Group (2 subscriptions):  Thanks for all the hard work. Congratulations on your long standing success. I read your newsletter every week and get at least one good nugget! The ANT Group is honored to be able to help support this little community of CAD/BIM/Tech enthusiasts. Rock on my Canadian friend!" Should you wish to support upFront.eZine, then the suggested amounts are $25 for individuals, $125 for small companies, and $500 for for large companies. You may make the donation by PayPal, as follows:   1. Log into http://www.PayPal.com 2. Click on the Send Money tab 3. To: [email protected] 4. Fill in the Amount, and then choose 'Service/Other' 5. Click Send Money How to donate through PayPal using a credit or debit card: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/helphub/article/?solutionId=FAQ2358 Letters to the Editor Re: Here's How HP's 3D Onramp-Offramp System Works  Pretty amazing to think that HP is very close to having a low-cost turn-key consumer replicator available, even if it is only for fairly small and simple solid objects.  Still, I can think of auto parts I recently needed that I could have made with this: a plastic sunroof latch and a plastic end cap for a very rare side skirt. I was able to obtain both parts, but if I had a Sprout I would have made my own since I had the latch (cracked) and the other side’s end cap (inverse). Maybe I could have mirrored the end cap through their software?     - Ron Powell   Re: Apocalypse nearing as computers slow down For us CAD users, multi-processors are a moot point due to the linear processing of the math involved. What I need is a dual-core 10GHz processor, not a 10-core 2.5GHz processor. Hello Intel, anybody home?   For the past 25 years, nothing's changed in the CAD world for mid-range CAD users. Every time my computer 'chugs,' it's because the processor is overloaded. The Performance Monitor ALWAYS shows one core in use at any time. Far as I know, that's how all mid-range modelers function, and they aren't changing any time soon.   What do Intel and the other hardware manufacturers have to say about that limitation/bottleneck in their technology? When do they plan on catering to those of us who work for a living on their hardware?     - Cadman777   The editor replies: The dual-core 10GHz CPU is a good idea. Intel is catering to gamers with the current line of CPUs.   Re: This is how much more you'll pay for Autodesk software  (on WorldCAD Access) I do 2D drafting with AutoCAD LT. As Ralph states, constant superficial upgrades are not relevant to us. Our peer group doesn't upgrade every release, and as long as backward compatibility is maintained we can currently get five to six years good performance out of the current once-off purchase.  Our current strategy gives greater stability, rather than the working with constantly modified systems with new bugs. It is also a better match with today's slow pace of hardware and operating system upgrades.      - John Corbett  - - - Congratulations on the anniversary of your newsletter. I enjoy receiving it.     - Janet Wiaderny     Origin International Spin Doctor of the Moment "Our ongoing plan was to monetize Circa News through the building of a strategy we had spent a long time developing but unfortunately we were unable to close a significant investment prior to becoming resource constrained."     - Matt Galligan, now ex-co-founder, Circa     https://medium.com/circa/farewell-to-circa-news-7d002150f74b

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ITC vs Gstarsoft

 Issue #860

One of the things that will place the IntelliCAD Technical Consortium in the history book of CAD is how the organization helped launch dozens of AutoCAD workalikes. They use the IntelliCAD code provided by the ITC. Some of the strongest members, however, flew the coop by rewriting their code to remove all traces of material copywritten by the ITC. Suzhou Gstarsoft Co. Ltd of China was a member of ITC, using IntelliCAD as the base for its GstarCAD software. But then in 2013, the company launched GstarCAD8, a new CAD platform based on "hundreds of engineers and three years of development." (It's not an '8', it's the infinity symbol; see Cyrena Respini-Irwin's report from China at http://www.cadalyst.com/cad/other-2d-cad/gstarsoft-launches-new-cad-platform-seeks-expand-global-reach-16292.) This is not new. Bricsys was the first to do this, transitioning away from IntelliCAD with BricsCAD 8 and 9. More recently, ZWSOFT did the same, their rewrite resulting in ZWCAD+. Both Bricsys and ZWSOFT say their releases have no copied IntelliCAD code. It appears, however, that the ITC is not convinced that Gstarsoft's new platform is entirely free of IntelliCAD code. The organization this month launched a law suit against the software company. (See press release.) To learn more about the situation, I interviewed both sides: Shawn Lindsay, legal counsel for the ITC, and Meiyu Huang, vice president of Suzhou Gstarsoft. ...article continues following this advertisement.

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Q&A with ITC Following my interview with the ITC, I asked Gstarsoft to respond to the same questions. Ralph Grabowski: Beyond the items listed in the press release, what are the sorts of things you feel Gstarsoft failed to do?  Shawn Lindsay: The press release pretty much outlines what Gstarsoft has done or failed to do:  Nonpayment of membership fees Refusal to allow the ITC to conduct an audit of the programming code Failing to comply with the membership rules We expect to conduct an audit [of the software code] and, depending on what we find there, it could be that we add to our claims. Meiyu Huang: We withheld the membership fee for 2015 as a direct consequence of this dispute. Until this year, we always paid, and paid on time. In fact, we paid membership fees even though we were no longer using the IntelliCAD code in our software.  We are not refusing an audit, we just want the process to be clear. The word 'audit' is very bad in the Chinese market, where people could ask, "Why is Gstarsoft being audited before another Chinese member who also developed their own CAD platform, earlier than Gstarsoft?" We require a fair auditing process to avoid unnecessary damage in the Chinese domestic market. It is natural for us to have such a concern.  Also, we worry about our IP [intellectual property] being released to a third party. Grabowski: Gstarsoft is located in China. How do you expect to access them legally in that country?  Lindsay: In the commercial membership agreement, the parties agree to US law and US venue, specifically, Portland Oregon. Thus we brought suit here in the US. Assuming we obtain a judgment against Gstarsoft, we will be able to register that judgment in China and enforce it there. Further, with a judgment we will be able to execute on any of Gstarsoft’s US assets or contracts and block their sales in the US and in other countries where the ITC might bring its judgment or independent suits. Huang: No comment for now; we are speaking with our lawyer. We take the right to take relevant action against ITC. Grabowski: Does this mean Gstarsoft is having financial problems, or did they have a different motive for not going along with the ITC's requirements?  Lindsay: We have no knowledge of their financial situation or their motives. Huang: We have no financial problems and we are not ignoring ITC requirements. Instead, the ITC is not giving us a safe way to do the audits, even after an exchange of ten emails and meetings; they are ignoring our reasonable requests.  Grabowski: The ITC is looking for damages in excess $250,000. Why such a large amount?   Lindsay: $54,500 for unpaid dues. $200,000 for prior penalties assessed for their noncompliance with and violations of the membership rules. Huang: We question the $200,000-amount. We would like ITC to show the evidence for such large amount. We have not violated any rules as a commercial member. They have not clarified the violation to us.   Q&A with GStarsoft I then gave Gstarsoft the opportunity to defend itself against the ITC's claims. Ralph Grabowski: How do you respond to the ITC's charges?   Meiyu Huang: Gstarsoft developed the new platform from scratch in three years at Xi’an Gstarsoft Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suzhou Gstarsoft Co. Ltd. We launched the new platform, because ITC changed its requirements in that all members' CAD programs must switch from using IntelliCAD 6 to IntelliCAD 7 [which is a different code base]. (ITC later withdrew this requirement.) But if we had to change platforms anyhow, we felt we should write our own, because we did not like the new IntelliCAD 7 platform. What’s  more, Gstarsoft was not the first ITC member to release a platform independent of IntelliCAD. Grabowski: What instead do you think the ITC should do ?  Huang: Gstarsoft takes an open attitude on the audit and believes the audit will be a great chance to prove that GstarCAD8 was developed completely independently. We feel that ITC should conduct the audit in a reasonable order: members who developed the new platform first should be audited first, especially in the sensitive market like China. ITC did not respond to this point, just telling us that they have the absolute right to decide, despite the fact that no ITC rule gives such a right. Grabowski: How did you communicate your wishes to the ITC?  Huang: We sent an email last October to the ITC with a proposal for how the audit could be organized: Send notices of audit to Gstarsoft and the other Chinese member that also developed a new platform. Perform the audit in China. This makes it easy to do the audit at the same place and in the same time frame, which saves travel time and money.  ITC is free to determine the timing of the audits, preferably performing them within 2-3 days of each other, so that they cannot be politicized. ITC keeps the timing and the results confidential. No ITC commercial member has the right to see the details of these audits; only the ITC board can review the results. Grabowski: What happened as a result of your email?  Huang: We had a Web meeting with ITC officers in February and had the impression they understood our position that an audit only for Gstarsoft could benefit our competitors. But in April, we received the email that we were in violation of ITC rules. In May, they launched the law suit. Grabowski: Why did you keep paying fees to the ITC, even though you no longer used IntelliCAD technology? Huang: We continued to pay the annual fee in 2013 and 2014, because we wanted to support the ITC. Continuing to support the ITC financially is like a sign of respect, because in the past GstarCAD was based on IntelliCAD. This is like a mother-child dispute, when the child wants to become independent. Grabowski: Why did the ITC keep accepting your fees, even though you no longer used their technology? Huang: You can be a member, even if you do not use the technology. Grabowski: What will happen next? Huang: Gstarsoft informed ITC that it is quitting at the end of April, and so we asked them to please provide the relevant procedure. Instead, the ITC terminated Gstarsoft’s membership and began the law suit. We think cooperation is over, because we are afraid the mutual trust between ITC and Gstarsoft does not exist any more.   What Ralph Grabowski Thinks For the ITC, the core issue is this: it needs to be seen as serious at enforcing its membership contract For Gstarsoft, the core issue is this: it feels that the actions of the ITC will place it at a competitive disadvantage from its most serious rival.  Following some off-the-record conversations with both parties, there are additional mitigating circumstances that I cannot reveal, unfortunately. No matter. Lawsuits always are sad events.  (I should slip in here a mention of Autodesk's ongoing law suit against ZWSOFT over the same issue: them wanting an audit to see if ZWCAD contains AutoCAD code. The status at this point is much legal maneuvering.) I am puzzled that the ITC would publicize this action, because it seems to me it could be a potential turn-off for potential recruits. Could not-yet members now be thinking, "Is the benefit of using this pre-written CAD system worth the trouble I might get into later?"  Ultimately, this case hinges on cultural misunderstandings:  Perhaps the American-based ITC does not understand Chinese culture sufficiently to handle this with appropriate delicacy?  Perhaps Chinese software firms fail to understand the American cultural obsession over IP protection?

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Even More News

Read the blog at WorldCAD Access as I write more about the CAD industry, and give tips on using hardware and software. You can also keep up with the blog through RSS feeds and email alerts. These are some of the articles that appeared on WorldCAD Access during the last week: Technology that I couldn't get working Apocalypse nearing as computers slow down  I'm also on Twitter at @upfrontezine throughout the day with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary.

Thank You, Subscribers!

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Notable Quotable

"Be very wary when reporting survey results, those microwave-ready story hooks -- perfect for slow news days -- that purport to provide objective data revealing, well, sometimes nothing."     - Ira Rifkin, "Yes, it's often dangerous for reporters to dance with polls"      http://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2015/4/27/7fvbmddri6mic98udao6kd15s8xcwi

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