larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (06/27/91)
In a recent article <telecom11.487.1@eecs.nwu.edu> John G.
DeArmond (emory!Dixie.Com!jgd@gatech.edu) spins an amusing yarn about
his alleged involvement with an AOS operation.
Unfortunately, Mr. DeArmond left out some of the *best* parts
of his alleged adventure -- which he told in a somewhat different
fashion to readers of misc.jobs.contract about a year ago. So as to
not deprive Telecom readers of this additional entertainment, I have
reproduced this previous article below. I'll add a few comments at
the end.
$$> >From sunybcs!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!
rsiatl!jgd Thu Jul 19 22:14:43 EDT 1990
$$> Path: sunybcs!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!
rsiatl!jgd
$$> >From: jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. DeArmond)
$$> Newsgroups: misc.jobs.contract
$$> Subject: Re: Timebombs (was Sueing your client for collection)
$$> Message-ID: <3204@rsiatl.UUCP>
$$> Date: 15 Jul 90 07:55:15 GMT
$$> References: <25191@bellcore.bellcore.com> <3150@rsiatl.UUCP>
<23411@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <1990Jul13.193639.22253@ecn.purdue.edu>
$$> Distribution: misc
$$> Organization: Radiation Systems, Inc. (a thinktank, motorcycle, car and
gun works facility)
$$> Lines: 66
$$>
[some non-relevant text deleted]
$$>
$$> We had a client for which we were implementing an operator-assisted
$$> long distance switch. We were subbing through a prime contractor
$$> who had a contract with the client that would pay us a royality based
$$> on the generated revenue from the system. It was a sweetheart deal
$$> for all involved and relations could not have been better. We
$$> were paid at the end of every week with checks that never bounced.
$$> We were working in office space subleased from the client - a
$$> necessity in order to be close to the switch and trunks.
$$>
$$> Just as we were turning up the first system, the founders of this
$$> startup phone company sold the company. The new owner was, shall
$$> we say, unsavory. He decided that he did not want to pay royalities
$$> or allow us to own the program -which we had the right to. So he
$$> addressed the problem in the usual mob manner - he sent some goons over
$$> to kidnap us while they stole our equipment and software.
$$>
$$> Sure we sued them and pressed criminal charges. But in America today,
$$> money is justice (and don't ever forget that.) He managed to have the
$$> criminal charges quietly dropped and the civil case, though still
$$> technically on the docket now 5 years later, is effectively dead.
$$> He simply out-moneyed us. We got nothing and he got to use our
$$> system. We kept our source code encrypted so he did not get that, though
$$> at one point, he almost had a judge convinced to issue an injuction
$$> to force us to reveal the password. Think of the intellectual property
$$> implications of that move.
$$>
$$> What he got was a system that worked and would carry the load for
$$> a sufficient period of time to have his programmers reverse-engineer
$$> it. If we had included a timebomb in the system from the very
$$> first, he would have been denied the use of the stolen system and
$$> would have had to bargan with us instead of blungeoning us with
$$> lawyers.
$$>
$$> It is unfortunate that human nature makes people like you take the
$$> moral high ground without having ever experienced the other side.
$$> Until you actually do have to face a lose-lose situation,
$$> you really can't predict all outcomes or appreciate how something
$$> like a timebomb, which you might not like, is vastly better than
$$> the alternative.
$$>
$$> John
$$>
$$> --
$$> John De Armond, WD4OQC | We can no more blame our loss of freedom on congress
$$> Radiation Systems, Inc. | than we can prostitution on pimps. Both simply
$$> Atlanta, Ga | provide broker services for their customers.
$$> {emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd| - Dr. W Williams | **I am the NRA**
-------------
By golly, what a tale! Mr. DeArmond was "kidnapped by goons
from the mob"!
It is also amusing to note that in the previous telling of
this tale Mr. DeArmond relates it as a "sweetheart deal" because he
would allegedly stand to receive a percentage of the revenue. Not
exactly the same condemnation of AOS fraud in the earlier version of
the tale, is there?
> Several years ago one other engineer and myself designed and built the
> switching system for an AOS. The name will not be mentioned because
> quite frankly I can't prove everything to legal standards that I'm
> going to discuss. I will use this experience as the basis of my
> comments. Nor will I provide any further technical details, as these
> could be used to identify the AOS.
Why the secrecy? If the story is true, then the alleged
criminal court proccedings and alleged civil court proceedings are a
matter of public record.
Surely it would bolster Mr. DeArmond's credibility if he were
to furnish a few more identifying details -- after all this could be
THE AOS ADVENTURE STORY OF THE DECADE!
Wanna bet there are no further details, because, well, there
just may not have been any ...
Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp.
VOICE: 716/688-1231 {boulder, rutgers, watmath}!ub!kitty!larry
FAX: 716/741-9635 [note: ub=acsu.buffalo.edu] uunet!/ \aerion!larry
[Moderator's Note: I was amused by the several notes I received saying
I was wrong for calling him a Naughty Word, and I'll admit that was
sort of out of place here ... but it really was a wild story a year
ago, and the most recent incantation was pretty hysterical also. PAT]