Embarcadero v. NCR and...
An eight year lawsuit - hundreds of thousands in financial penalties, developer shaming, and licenses-terminating comedy.
This is part 1 of Low Hanging Fruits - easy targets for Embarcadero’s legal team. Part II will follow soon.
Forbidden Love
How much should others pay for Delphi developers' indiscretions?
Delphi has a cult following. It’s followers love to use the Delphi programming language. As Embarcadero moves new features to more expensive versions (“SKUs”) of Delphi, at what cost should Delphi developers pay? If others pay, how much should they pay?
Searching for Delphi coding on Google, I came across names of Delphi developers shamed on legal court documents, and… NCR’s years-long lawsuit.
Copyright law and DMCA diverge
Delphi developers love Delphi - an irony since Delphi’s ecosystem is in shambles. Its vendors squeeze them by restricting access to products they paid for (1 year on updates, then downloads are disabled), and Embarcadero goes for the kill - forcing companies to pay huge compliance fines and forcing penalties on abandoned subscriptions. Don’t pay? Get sued or pay penalties.
What happens when your Delphi SA (Software Assurance) expires, and…
you need to re-install Delphi?
Too bad.
Most companies would settle, pay a fine… and… there are companies that fight tooth and nail.
Delphi as a liability
A re-install of Rad Studio, Delphi, C++ Builder takes a few hours. Need to switch from Delphi Professional to Delphi Enterprise, enter a new serial to update license, and re-install again.
Most, if not all developers have administrator access on their computers - for debugging Delphi apps.
There is wilful infringement - downloading Delphi Architect edition not-licensed and using it. As Delphi’s always-on, OCD license checker tries to exfiltrate data to Embarcadero, the following will happen:
When connecting to corporate networks, it will send network details to Embarcadero.
In a network, it sends network name to identify the company where it’s used
And so on, as documented in -
.
Here is where Copyright laws and DMCA diverge. Suppose you have an infringement - files for a movie shared online ahem, TurboPower VCL Products before TurboPower closed shop or store a stash of files (because, you fear the vendor will revoke access to them). If the copyright holder detects an infringement, who is liable?
In DMCA law, the copyright holder sends a notification to the server-owner who then passes it to the third-party and the third-party makes the actions to remove infringing material. Most, if not all of the time, the copyright-holder does not continue legal actions. Attempting to sue the server-owners, you run into the section 230 wall.
In Copyright law, the Copyright holder sends a notification to the server-owner, who then has to pay inflated prices for software illegally used. Attempts to divert the fine, will lead to the server-owners getting sued.
What if the server-owner paid for licenses and the Delphi developer uses not-legal version? Who should pay?
“Pre-crime”
On BSA’s website, I noted, it has compliance training. It is farcical. It asks for self-audits - and what self-audit tools1 for defense are available?
Embarcadero is noteworthy that is is a BSA member… and all the compliance tools used to do self-audits do not include Delphi, C++ Builder, Interbase license tracking information.
Then, as additional licenses are required for third-party, - does DevExpress, TMS, Unidac have auditing tools for them?
Drive-by-Infringement
One of my customers got sued - by providing a contractor with internet access.
If a laptop infected containing infringing software connects to a corporate network, and the infringing software calls home and contains identifying information about that corporate network, who is liable?
It depends whether the person is a contractor, independent person, or an employee and whose laptop it is. If it is a company-used laptop at a WHF location, who is liable?
Friendly tip: After my friend got audited, he no longer gave Wifi passwords to guests visiting his business.
Alec Baldwin’s defense
Alec Baldwin is a notable actor. During filming, Alec fired shots that killed a fellow actor. In the months, the US government tried to convict him and… his trial was thrown out, because the prosecution did not hand-over certain information that could help win his case.
In order to prevent alleged infringement, there should be software which automatically scans for improper license usage - much like how Sencha scans websites for infringement. Is this available for private usage?
See how Sencha, DevExpress and others use website scanning technology to detect infringing content.
Anti-virus software don't detect this kind of issue, it detects malware and viruses.
License termination - banned from using Delphi
Another low hanging fruit tactic that Embarcadero legally applies is license termination.
When you divorce someone, it means that two parties cannot and do not want to meet each other.
If one party decides to terminate the license, what will the other party do?
What would you do, if you are prohibited from using Delphi? All pascal files, code, development, would be lost. All the value-adding, building a business, is gone.
If you don’t think this would happen, it did happen as Embarcadero used that as a legal tactic to force NRC to pay in Embarcadero vs. NCR.
Rookie lawyers
You can read the case in its entirety as it’s publicly available. You can see names of Delphi developers - whose careers are probably over, warrant-less searches conducted necessary to prove innocence, and comical when they asked the final amounts to be redacted (hint: hundreds of thousands, enough to pay salaries to hundreds of Delphi developers) and millions in legal fees.
This lawsuit lasted multiple years. As of writing this blog post and prior blog-posts, it may be appealed. Would NCR appeal the judgment?
If NCR operated a file-sharing website (example - Scribd), which allows third-party to upload infringement materials, would Embarcadero sue?
The real pirates have been selling Delphi through various website for years, and I, personally have reported EMBARCADERO and I don’t see these “people” being terrorized by IDERA’s lawyers.
- Telegram user
The other low hanging fruits
The Delphi developers who uses not-licensed Delphi, illegally downloaded third-party libraries from various file-sharing sites - they’ll never be prosecuted.
The websites which host infringing content - they’ll never get sued.
The slander and defamers - those that hang out on the Embarcadero newsgroups - which posts never get cancelled - which means ruined reputations - they’ll never get ued. (UK law now handles this kind of injury)
Individuals who run small businesses - who use Delphi or C++ Builder CE, will get nasty letters -
Would Embarcadero go after the individuals shamed in the legal documents?
Then, any new features in Delphi are minimal. They are to keep subscribers happy.
We have released Qt 6.7.3. As a patch release, Qt 6.7.3 does not introduce new features but contains more than 400 bug fixes, security updates, and other improvements to the top of the Qt 6.7.2 release.
- QT Blog
How many new features are in Delphi next release? LOL
Delphi becomes like… Voldemort
Voldemort is a fictional character in Harry Potter. Saying his name is forbidden.
Delphi is banned in certain companies for the above mentioned reasons - the poor performance, slandering, aggressive legal-prosecution of innocent bystanders.
Many business owners severely dislike using Delphi for fear of ruined reputations, paying for Delphi' developers indiscretions… and possibility of having to rewrite the whole app, complete loss of intellectual property (IP), business, reputation and loss due to slander and defamation found on google searches when their business name appears on former newsgroups, or careless discussions of Delphi developers.
https://bsadefense.com/bsa-audits-faq/ This link is intentionally unlinked for the safety of this blog’s audiences.