Re: Debian-installer, older hardware, boot loaders, miboot & amiboot & ..
Henning Makholm wrote:
> Scripsit Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org>
>
>> There's absolutely no point even implying that we need their permission
>> to reverse engineer anything,
>
> If we are going to distribute code that has been derived by reverse
> engineering, then we do need permission from the original copyright
> holder.
Only if it's actually a derivative work. If it's done by the "Chinese Wall"
a.k.a "Clean Room" method, it's not, as has been explained before.
That requires one person examining the boot block and making a specification
(without any binary details) for what a boot block needs to do, and a
*different* person reading the specification and writing a brand new boot
block from it.
>It's not the "reverse engineering" that needs permission; it's
> the "distribute derived code".
>
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