Tim Rentsch & The Abscissa Book

Tim Rentsch & The Abscissa Book

[Jason Hickey]

Dear friends,

I have recently reviewed a book titled "The Objective Caml Programming
Language," published under the name Tim Rentsch by Abscissa Press,
ISBN 978-0-9815992-0-5.  The majority of the text printed in this book
was written by me, and it is published without my permission.  To be
specific, Mr. Rentsch wrote chapters 14, 15, 17, and the Appendix
(totaling 1/3 of the text of this book); the rest is my writing.

The copy is near verbatim.  To validate, simply place the texts
side-by-side.  For clarity, one can compare against a very early draft
of my book.  I have placed a few examples online using the 2002 draft
for illustration.

   http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~jyh/papers/side-by-side.pdf

Even with editing and revisions since then, much of the 2002 text
appears in the Abscissa book verbatim.  This is not isolated; the
copying is broad and sweeping.  For the chapters where I made
significant revisions after 2002, the logs are online and available
for scrutiny.

There is no copyright in ideas.  Copyright infringement consists of
the actual copying by one author of the words written by another.  The
infringement here is precise and simple.

   - The book contains substantial text that I wrote.
   - It is published under the sole authorship of Tim Rentsch.
   - It is published without my permission.

- History

I began this book in 2000 as a reference for a compiler class I was
teaching at Caltech.  Mr. Rentsch worked with me as a reviewer and
editor from 2004-2006.  In addition, he wrote two chapters and an
appendix during this time, and I offered him co-authorship on this
basis.  We had a dispute in Jan 2007 where I felt Mr. Rentsch's claims
on the entire work were excessive.  After several months discussion, I
terminated the arrangement, rolled back the text to 2003, and started
over.

Since then, I have revised and rewritten the text, including several
new chapters, and I submitted a new manuscript for publication to
Cambridge University Press in Jan 2008.  This is still pending a
formal review by Mr. Rentsch to determine "the extent to which any
such manuscript might constitute a derivative work of our previous
collaboration" (his words, his request).  [Yes, despite repeated
querying, we realize that this review might not come to pass.]

To my knowledge there are no lawsuits pending at this time.

I was not aware until recently of the Abscissa publication -- and in
fact I hadn't even heard of Abscissa Press.  The home page is blank,
but a quick investigation shows that the domain name is served by
shamko.com, for which the contact is listed as Tim Rentsch.

- What do we do as a community?

It is my very strong wish that this event not have any lasting effect
on the community.  I wish my role in the community to be as an
advocate and a teacher, I have no wish to be involved in a public
controversy.  I believe the best course of action would simply be to
be productive, move on, and continue with our lives.  Leave the
decision of what to do with the Mr. Rentsch to me and my publisher.

If you are a reviewer, consider carefully whether/how you want to be
associated with Rentsch's publication.

If you bought a copy of the book, consider filing it in the section
that covers "academic integrity."

Finally, if you are willing and have time, consider writing a letter
to my editor Heather Bergman (hbergman at cambridge.org) encouraging
CUP to publish my work.  You may view it online at the usual sites.

Jason Hickey
http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~jyh

Re: [Caml-list] Tim Rentsch & The Abscissa Book

[Mikkel Fahnøe Jørgensen]

2009/3/6 Jason Hickey <jyh@cs.caltech.edu>:
> Dear friends,
>
> I have recently reviewed a book titled "The Objective Caml Programming
> Language," published under the name Tim Rentsch by Abscissa Press,
> ISBN 978-0-9815992-0-5.  The majority of the text printed in this book
> was written by me, and it is published without my permission.  To be
> specific, Mr. Rentsch wrote chapters 14, 15, 17, and the Appendix
> (totaling 1/3 of the text of this book); the rest is my writing.
>

I don't have anything polite to say other than to give Jason my full
support and recommend anyone to not buy that book.

No matter how much editing takes place, this cannot count as original
work. Most people in software know this.

Regards,
Mikkel

Re: [Caml-list] Tim Rentsch & The Abscissa Book

[Jon Harrop]

On Friday 06 March 2009 21:14:27 Jason Hickey wrote:
> ...
> I have placed a few examples online using the 2002 draft for illustration.
>
>    http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~jyh/papers/side-by-side.pdf
> ...

Where can I find your third example in your 2002 draft?

-- 
Dr Jon Harrop, Flying Frog Consultancy Ltd.
http://www.ffconsultancy.com/?e

Re: [Caml-list] Tim Rentsch & The Abscissa Book

[Yoann Padioleau]

Mikkel Fahnøe Jørgensen <mikkel@dvide.com> writes:

> 2009/3/6 Jason Hickey <jyh@cs.caltech.edu>:
>> Dear friends,
>>
>> I have recently reviewed a book titled "The Objective Caml Programming
>> Language," published under the name Tim Rentsch by Abscissa Press,
>> ISBN 978-0-9815992-0-5.  The majority of the text printed in this book
>> was written by me, and it is published without my permission.  To be
>> specific, Mr. Rentsch wrote chapters 14, 15, 17, and the Appendix
>> (totaling 1/3 of the text of this book); the rest is my writing.
>>
>
> I don't have anything polite to say other than to give Jason my full
> support and recommend anyone to not buy that book.
>
> No matter how much editing takes place, this cannot count as original
> work. Most people in software know this.

The question is why fighting over a book that looks dull and boring,
than 10 people will maybe buy, and that can be downloaded anyway
as a pdf on the web ? 

Ok, I am (half) joking, just to relax, there are too much
tension on this mailing list :) I propose a fight between the
two gentlemen: the one who win the next ICFP contest can publish
the book.

>
> Regards,
> Mikkel
>
> _______________________________________________
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Re: Tim Rentsch & The Abscissa Book

[Tim Rentsch]

Dear Caml-list readers:

I have just read Jason Hickey's post of 3/6/2009 at the beginning of
this thread.  Now that Jason has made this a public issue by trying it
in the court of public opinion I am forced to give a public response.
Jason's letter is false or misleading in important respects, as
demonstrated by a letter he himself wrote to my lawyer dated May 19,
2008 [http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~txr/tocpl/misc/jyh-2008_05_19.pdf].

In a prior post, Jason claimed not to have been aware of my book.  The
truth is he and his publisher have exchanged multiple letters with me
and my lawyer for some time, and they have been well aware of my book
for roughly the last year, well before it was published.  The clearest
example is in his own hand.  Prof. Hickey's letter of May 19, 2008, is
two full pages devoted solely to the subject of my book.  Among other
things, he stated: "I am pleased that Mr. Rentsch intends to publish a
book on Objective Caml based on joint work he did with me."  He also
stated that his publisher's counsel, Kevin Taylor, had "proposed that
both authors simply publish their own books . . ."

Jason claims of my book The Objective Caml Programming Language that I
wrote only chapters 14, 15, 17, and the Appendix, and that he wrote
everything else.  That claim is false and Jason knows it.  I have said
all along that my book is based on the joint work that Jason and I
prepared between 2004 and 2007.  Jason tries to downplay my role in
the joint work, for example his comment about offering co-authorship
"on this basis" [for two chapters and an appendix].  In fact what he
said was "We have to make you a co-author!", or something very close
to that, and sounded more like it was made out of recognition of the
amount of work I'd put in, not just specific writings.  Furthermore
most of the work I did in other parts of the book was done after that
point, after being made a co-author.

It appears that Jason is guilty of doing himself what he's accusing
me of doing, making use of material developed for our joint work
without my permission.  I've just conducted a very cursory
examination of Jason's online manuscript.  For example, the earlier
course notes had no exercises.  A comparison of exercises in his
manuscript and my book will show similarities in many cases, too many
to be just coincidental.  I have not received any communication
either asking me for permission or attempting to make arrangements
so I could be paid royalties that I'm entitled to for use of
material developed for the joint work.

Jason intimates in one posting that my manuscript was deliberately
withheld from him.  The truth is an offer was made in a letter sent in
May of 2008 to Kevin Taylor, with a cc to Jason, to provide a copy of
that manuscript.  No request for any such copy has been received.

Jason implies in one posting that I asked CUP to delay publication of
his manuscript until after I reviewed it.  I never made any such
request, nor did I expect that there would be any delay of this kind.
I did ask for an advance copy of the manuscript, but on later advice
decided not to look at it at all, and this decision was communicated
to CUP by letter in May of 2008 (the same letter mentioned above,
cc'ed to Jason).  Since that time I'm not aware of any attempt, either
by Jason or by CUP, to try to get any kind of resolution on the matter
or to ask about any possibly missing communication.

There are indications on reddit.com that Jason may be trying to add to
a set of comments accusing me of plagiarism;  the charges of
plagiarism are absolutely false, and Jason knows it.

The comments above reflect just some of the ways that Jason's remarks
are false or misleading;  I haven't tried to tabulate them all.  I
have, to the best of my understanding, a legal right to use material
from the joint work in the way that I'm using it.  Furthermore I
invite everyone to compare my book against the earlier 2002 course
notes, not just at the level of words or phrases, but entire sections
and chapters, and see for themselves the extent to which I contributed
not just changes but value to all parts of any earlier material.

At the end of his posting Jason makes some self-serving statements
related to further public discussion, moving on, etc.  If he'd really
felt that way he could have written a short notice saying that he
would be taking the matter up with his publisher and would let people
know how things turned out.  Of course, what he really wants is to
have it both ways -- make public accusations and then stop any further
public discussion.  I encourage _all_ readers to gather facts on this
issue on _both_ sides, and convey any opinions to Jason's editor, and
also to appropriate public forums -- I don't know where else Jason
might have posted.  I encourage reviewers of _both_ books to report
all the facts available to them, and for anyone who would recommend
Jason's book to consider whether they want to be associated with the
kind of intellectual dishonesty he has displayed in his postings here.

Re: [Caml-list] Re: Tim Rentsch & The Abscissa Book

[Yitzhak Mandelbaum]

Dear list,

I strongly advise people to read the letter to which Mr. Rentsch links  
before coming to any conclusions from Mr. Rentsch's quotes.

Cheers,
Yitzhak


On Mar 8, 2009, at 4:15 AM, Tim Rentsch wrote:

> Dear Caml-list readers:
>
> I have just read Jason Hickey's post of 3/6/2009 at the beginning of
> this thread.  Now that Jason has made this a public issue by trying it
> in the court of public opinion I am forced to give a public response.
> Jason's letter is false or misleading in important respects, as
> demonstrated by a letter he himself wrote to my lawyer dated May 19,
> 2008 [http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~txr/tocpl/misc/ 
> jyh-2008_05_19.pdf].
>
> In a prior post, Jason claimed not to have been aware of my book.  The
> truth is he and his publisher have exchanged multiple letters with me
> and my lawyer for some time, and they have been well aware of my book
> for roughly the last year, well before it was published.  The clearest
> example is in his own hand.  Prof. Hickey's letter of May 19, 2008, is
> two full pages devoted solely to the subject of my book.  Among other
> things, he stated: "I am pleased that Mr. Rentsch intends to publish a
> book on Objective Caml based on joint work he did with me."  He also
> stated that his publisher's counsel, Kevin Taylor, had "proposed that
> both authors simply publish their own books . . ."
>
> Jason claims of my book The Objective Caml Programming Language that I
> wrote only chapters 14, 15, 17, and the Appendix, and that he wrote
> everything else.  That claim is false and Jason knows it.  I have said
> all along that my book is based on the joint work that Jason and I
> prepared between 2004 and 2007.  Jason tries to downplay my role in
> the joint work, for example his comment about offering co-authorship
> "on this basis" [for two chapters and an appendix].  In fact what he
> said was "We have to make you a co-author!", or something very close
> to that, and sounded more like it was made out of recognition of the
> amount of work I'd put in, not just specific writings.  Furthermore
> most of the work I did in other parts of the book was done after that
> point, after being made a co-author.
>
> It appears that Jason is guilty of doing himself what he's accusing
> me of doing, making use of material developed for our joint work
> without my permission.  I've just conducted a very cursory
> examination of Jason's online manuscript.  For example, the earlier
> course notes had no exercises.  A comparison of exercises in his
> manuscript and my book will show similarities in many cases, too many
> to be just coincidental.  I have not received any communication
> either asking me for permission or attempting to make arrangements
> so I could be paid royalties that I'm entitled to for use of
> material developed for the joint work.
>
> Jason intimates in one posting that my manuscript was deliberately
> withheld from him.  The truth is an offer was made in a letter sent in
> May of 2008 to Kevin Taylor, with a cc to Jason, to provide a copy of
> that manuscript.  No request for any such copy has been received.
>
> Jason implies in one posting that I asked CUP to delay publication of
> his manuscript until after I reviewed it.  I never made any such
> request, nor did I expect that there would be any delay of this kind.
> I did ask for an advance copy of the manuscript, but on later advice
> decided not to look at it at all, and this decision was communicated
> to CUP by letter in May of 2008 (the same letter mentioned above,
> cc'ed to Jason).  Since that time I'm not aware of any attempt, either
> by Jason or by CUP, to try to get any kind of resolution on the matter
> or to ask about any possibly missing communication.
>
> There are indications on reddit.com that Jason may be trying to add to
> a set of comments accusing me of plagiarism;  the charges of
> plagiarism are absolutely false, and Jason knows it.
>
> The comments above reflect just some of the ways that Jason's remarks
> are false or misleading;  I haven't tried to tabulate them all.  I
> have, to the best of my understanding, a legal right to use material
> from the joint work in the way that I'm using it.  Furthermore I
> invite everyone to compare my book against the earlier 2002 course
> notes, not just at the level of words or phrases, but entire sections
> and chapters, and see for themselves the extent to which I contributed
> not just changes but value to all parts of any earlier material.
>
> At the end of his posting Jason makes some self-serving statements
> related to further public discussion, moving on, etc.  If he'd really
> felt that way he could have written a short notice saying that he
> would be taking the matter up with his publisher and would let people
> know how things turned out.  Of course, what he really wants is to
> have it both ways -- make public accusations and then stop any further
> public discussion.  I encourage _all_ readers to gather facts on this
> issue on _both_ sides, and convey any opinions to Jason's editor, and
> also to appropriate public forums -- I don't know where else Jason
> might have posted.  I encourage reviewers of _both_ books to report
> all the facts available to them, and for anyone who would recommend
> Jason's book to consider whether they want to be associated with the
> kind of intellectual dishonesty he has displayed in his postings here.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Caml-list mailing list. Subscription management:
> http://yquem.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/caml-list
> Archives: http://caml.inria.fr
> Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners
> Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs

-----------------------------
Yitzhak Mandelbaum

Re: [Caml-list] Re: Tim Rentsch & The Abscissa Book

[Joshua D. Guttman]

Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> writes:

>   Among other things, he stated: "I am pleased that
>   Mr. Rentsch intends to publish a book on Objective Caml
>   based on joint work he did with me."

Among other things.  Among those other things is:  

"I do not grant permission to use my written word in his
manuscript."  

This sentence comes early in the letter, and would seem to
make his position rather clear.

        Joshua 


-- 
	Joshua D. Guttman 
	The MITRE Corporation

Re: [Caml-list] Re: Tim Rentsch & The Abscissa Book

[Mike Lin]

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On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 3:15 AM, Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:

>
>  I
> have, to the best of my understanding, a legal right to use material
> from the joint work in the way that I'm using it.


While I am fully aware that a public argument over this among
poorly-informed non-lawyers is possibly counterproductive and certainly
unhelpful, now I'm curious :) Many people involved with OSS are familiar
with the rough contours of copyright law as it applies to "derivative
works", but perhaps less familiar with how it applies in cases of disputes
between co-authors (if that is how you are framing the situation). So to
make your case "in the court of public opinion", I think the above statement
is what really needs a detailed justification. All the other issues raised
in the recent lengthy missives from both parties are chaff by comparison.

On a superficial scan of its contents, one might conclude that Tim's letter
to your lawyer may have been written in implied confidence, and if that was
the case then an outside observer might find it somewhat distasteful to post
it like this. Could your perhaps clarify the circumstances of that, as well?

 Mike Lin

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Re: [Caml-list] Re: Tim Rentsch & The Abscissa Book

[Yaron Minsky]

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2009/3/9 Mike Lin <nilekim@gmail.com>

> On a superficial scan of its contents, one might conclude that Tim's letter
> to your lawyer may have been written in implied confidence,
>

I believe you meant "_Jason's_ letter  to your lawyer".

y

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Re: [Caml-list] Re: Tim Rentsch & The Abscissa Book

[Mike Lin]

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Good catch

On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 9:23 AM, Yaron Minsky <yminsky@gmail.com> wrote:

> 2009/3/9 Mike Lin <nilekim@gmail.com>
>
>> On a superficial scan of its contents, one might conclude that Tim's
>> letter to your lawyer may have been written in implied confidence,
>>
>
> I believe you meant "_Jason's_ letter  to your lawyer".
>
> y
>
>

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