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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!newshost.telstra.net!asstdc.scgt.oz.au!metro!metro!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!nntp-hub2.barrnet.net!news.Stanford.EDU!bolo.stanford.edu!cheshire From: Stuart Cheshire <cheshire@cs.stanford.edu> Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.x,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Why to not buy Matrox Millennium Date: 24 Mar 1996 21:08:50 GMT Organization: Stanford University Lines: 24 Distribution: world Message-ID: <4j4dl2$n44@nntp.Stanford.EDU> References: <4j21ph$crr@slappy.cs.utexas.edu> <4j3muv$34m@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu> <4j3v64$1rq@virtech.aib.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: bolo.stanford.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Newsreader: Nuntius 2.0.4_68K X-XXMessage-ID: <AD7AF83EBC0200F4@bolo.stanford.edu> X-XXDate: Sun, 24 Mar 1996 21:01:50 GMT Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.apps:13658 comp.os.linux.development.system:19991 comp.os.linux.x:27593 comp.os.linux.hardware:34324 comp.os.linux.setup:47181 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:290 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:2781 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:2555 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:15996 In article <4j3v64$1rq@virtech.aib.com> David E. Wexelblat, dwex@aib.com writes: >1) It's illegal. >2) You will make no friends in the XFree86[TM] community by doing so. We > will do all in our power to stop you. Are you sure it's illegal to reverse engineer code for the purpose of achieving compatibility? I thought this had been pretty clearly settled, under the "must-fit parts" rule. In it's original (pre-computer) from, the "must-fit parts" rule says that if Ford puts a funny left-hand thread on their wheel nuts so that standard wheels don't fit their cars, then wheel manufacturers are allowed to "reverse-engineer" the screw thread size so that they can make wheels which will fit, and Ford can't do anything to stop them. Can you cite any legal precedent to the contrary? Stuart Cheshire <cheshire@cs.stanford.edu> * <A HREF="http://ResComp.Stanford.EDU/~cheshire">Web Page</A> * Stanford Operating Systems and Networking Group Research Assistant * Stanford Residential Computing Associate * Macintosh Programmer