win95/98/ME and printers. An ethics issue comparable to DRM servers or not?

[Leo Mauler]

--- On Wed, 8/6/08, Monty J. Harder <mjharder at gmail.com> wrote:

> It's not just that HP is withdrawing the drivers 
> from their web site, it's that they maintain that 
> it is illegal for others to possess and use those 
> drivers.

To be entirely fair to HP, Microsoft did yank all the licenses for the Microsoft components of those HP Windows 98 printer drivers, so currently the only way to use those HP Windows 98 printer drivers is to violate a Microsoft EULA (or code around the Microsoft parts, a lot more work).

Linux has a similar situation, though it is handled quite differently.  Not being run by a megacorporation with goals of global domination through underhanded techniques, the FSF and GNU project allows proprietary software companies to *technically* violate the GPL through temporarily including GPLed Linux header files in their non-GPL program code during runtime (but not when the binaries are originally compiled).  This is how HP is able to create HP drivers for Linux despite HP being in a similar situation with its Windows 98 printer drivers.