Re: [Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>] Re: Debian & BSD concerns
On Thu, Mar 11, 1999 at 01:24:43AM -0700, Bruce Sass wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Stephen J. Carpenter wrote:
>
> > You can dissasemble their program and write your own still..not using
> > any of their code and still not violate their copyright...
> > However...it is hard, if not impossible to prove that you didn't steal
> > their code.
> >
> > This is where the "clean room" idea of reverse engineering comes in.
> > 1 person reverse engineers the code and documents it. They would
> > extensivly document how the whole thing works. (without code)
> > Then hands the docs to a second party who then codes it.
> >
> > In this manner the coder has not even seen the copyrighted work and
> > thus can not possibly copy it
>
> If I was the license holder I would be arguing that the work is a
> derivative, void of originality...
You can CLAIM anything you like...this is how it is actually
done "properly". Imagine this:
Person A dissassembles and analzes MS Word and uses it to document all
of MS Word .doc file format.
He then hands a description of MS Word .doc format to person B who
codes a program to read/write it.
The actual codeing is no differnt than reading an RFC. Would you
say that the linux TCP/IP v4 stack has no originality because
all they had to do was read the RFC on IPV4?
> or am I thinking more of patent issues...
> is that why MS would prefer more complex 'net protocols,
> because they could be patented?
Patenets are differnt. A patent is publicly available. ANYONE can look
up the patent and see exactly how it works and how to impliment their
own. However...the patent prevents anyone from doing it for the length
of the patent (about 20 years?)
The simple fact is that MANY "Licence Agreements" attempt
to take away rights which are specifically granted under Copyright
law. There is nothing I have seen in copyright law which covers anything
beyond comercial use and distribution. You wanna buy a copy
of the latest book by Stephen King and make 10000 copies?
fine go ahead...as long as you don't distribute them and keep them
all to yourself you are within the law.
-Steve
--
/* -- Stephen Carpenter <sjc@delphi.com> --- <sjc@debian.org>------------ */
Pickle's Law:
If Congress must do a painful thing,
the thing must be done in an odd-number year.
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