From: minyard@crchh7b9.rich.bnr.ca (Corey Minyard) Subject: Re: Xircom pocket adapter Date: 10 Sep 1993 02:43:01 GMT
: >
: >Problem is that Xircom doesn't document their hardware, and prohibits
: ^^^^^^^^^
: >reverse engineering. Sell your Xircom to a DOS luser and buy a D-Link.
: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: >-russ <nelson@crynwr.com> What canst *thou* say?
: >Crynwr Software Crynwr Software sells packet driver support.
: >11 Grant St. 315-268-1925 Voice | LPF member - ask me about
: >Potsdam, NY 13676 315-268-9201 FAX | the harm software patents do.
: Is that legal? I thought the law always allowed reverse engineering
: as long as code isn't stolen/ I even think there was a lawsuit whose result
: proved that (could be wrong here though). Or is this another area where the
: ever so wonderful U.S legal system (barf) allows one to get sued even
: though what they are doing is perfectly legal?
The current issue of Communication of the ACM has an article about this.
It was kind of an eye-opener to me about copyrights in general.
From what I can gather, it is perfectly legal to reverse engineer as long
as you don't use any code from what you got. And the sueing bit is kind
of a mute point for us. What are they going to sue us for? Well, I guess
lawyers cost money, but Xircom wouldn't gain anything by that. The code
would already be released.
Having said that, I don't think we should support loser companies that don't
release hardware specs. In the long run they are not benefitting themselves
anyway. I'm all for "helping" them go out of business buy not buying their
stuff and encouraging others to not buy it. I think it should be a Linux
principle not to port stuff to companies that do not release their specs.
Corey
minyard@wf-rch.cirr.com