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From: rankin@ewl.uky.edu (David W. Rankin Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX)
Date: 8 May 1996 18:11:25 GMT
Organization: University of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
Lines: 56
Message-ID: <4mqo4d$kbq@t3.mscf.uky.edu>
References: <NELSON.96Apr15010553@ns.crynwr.com> <318978E8.14B8@vfr.interceptor.com> <4mmhcj$dfr@news1.halcyon.com> <31901BFD.7BAC@vfr.interceptor.com>
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:23392 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:939 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3707 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3537 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:19005 comp.os.linux.advocacy:48604
In article <31901BFD.7BAC@vfr.interceptor.com>,
Thumper! <thumper@vfr.interceptor.com> wrote:
}Tim Smith wrote:
...
}> In general, this is incorrect. If you don't want someone to be able to
}> legally reverse engineer your product, you've got to get them to
}> contractually agree to not reverse engineer it. For non-software
}> products, there is not much you can do to stop reverse engineering,
}> except get patents to cover the essentials of your product, or make
}> sure that you are careful who you sell to. If it's going to be a mass
}> marketed product that any schmoe can go and buy at the supermarket or
}> hardware store, patents are about the only protection you can hope
}> for.
}That would sadly imply that software is unprotectable. Commercial software,
}GNU,
}GPL, etc, are meaningless, because it's therefore legal to take someone's
} product,
}take it apart to see how it works, and then derive your own work partially,
}or even
}entirely, from that work, and proceed to legally sell your own work. That
}would
}also apply to hardware as well; just take apart an Intel CPU, make a copy, and
}build your own. After all, why should patents offer protection that copyright
}doesn't?
You may take it apart and see how it works, but you're NOT allowed to
copy the design, only use it as a reference. I can look inside of GCC
for inspiration & ideas, but when it comes time to write that compiler,
I'm still stuck doing all the work. The clone chip makers had troubles
because it was necessary to actually design the chips from scratch
to act like the Intel chips _and_ be far enough from the layout to
prevent accidental copyright or patent infridgement.
The idea of the copyright system isn't to protect the ideas, but the
time it took you to make the ideas into a product.
}Consider this: a screenwirter writes a movie. Someone else takes his script,
}reads the scripts, makes changes, and produces the movie. Is the screenwriter
}entitled to anything?
Yes. That said, algorithms are not given the intellectual property
status that story lines are also given. (Not to mention that studios
are paranoid, and usually won't even read this kind of stuff except
at so low a level that it could never touch a current project.)
And a lot of the intellectual proprty in Hollywood is covered under the
'derived works' part of Copyright law. (i.e. I can't write a Star Trek(tm)
book because I'd basically be making a derived work from the shows).
David
--
David W. Rankin, Jr. UNIX Sysadmin, occasional Contractor, and NetBSD fan
rankin@otbsvcs.garrard.ky.us Pager: rankin-pager@ewl.uky.edu
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