For those IBM Corp executives who told us there will be no price list published for its new G5 servers – see top stories section – we asked our resident IBM watcher to review for our readers the terms of the 1956 Consent Decree Big Blue signed with the US Department of Justice. The decree is in effect until 2001 on mainframes, 2000 on AS/400s. It said that IBM must provide list prices comparable to its rental (financing) prices for its equipment. It also said that IBM must publish specs for its mainframes to allow third party equipment; it must provide maintenance services for computers equipped with plug-compatible mainframe gear; it should operate an arms-length services subsidiary such that services business would have no appreciable advantage over other services firms. The decree prohibited the sale of secondhand equipment, and IBM was also prohibited from bundling hardware and software together. But the law doesn’t appear to be what the judge say, it seems to be what corporations are allowed to get away with when the judge isn’t (or sometimes even is) looking. The very existence of IBM Global Services as it is currently configured is a violation of the decree, as is IBM Credit Corp’s continued selling of secondhand equipment. IBM would presumably counter that it upgrades machines before selling them, which is allowed under the decree, but exactly what the definition of an upgrade is (a new memory card in that old AS/400?) is subject to debate. Bundling OS/400 and AIX on AS/400s and RS/6000s is also a violation, although the RS/6000 and PCs were excused from the Decree a few years ago. Moreover, providing a lifetime warranty on systems – which IBM has considered – could be a violation of the decree since it would kill the third party maintenance business.
