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- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!VNET.IBM.COM!soyring
- 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
-
-