Examples of proprietary control

[Alessandro Rubini]

Sorry for the late reply, I was offline.

I read all replies, and I think this is an interesting case. I heard
about it some time ago about robopark (the web site looks like an ode
to intellectual property more than anything else).

Quoting http://www.calccit.org/itsdecision/serv_and_tech/Parking_Systems_Technologies/parking_systems_tech_report.htm

    In August 2006 the robotic parking garage encountered a
    problem. It [...] a contractual disagreement between Robotic
    Parking (the owners of the software running the garage) and the
    City of New Jersey who own and operate the garage but refused to
    pay what they saw as an exorbitant rise in software licence and
    maintenance fees [...].

    The City was not allowed to operate the garage without a software
    license and the result was a court case which lasted two weeks and
    trapped residents cars in the parking garage over that period
    since there was no manual way to remove vehicles.

/alessandro