Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 15:20:36 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: mef@cs.washington.edu Cc: terry@lambert.org, vanmaren@fast.cs.utah.edu, freebsd-smp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Lots 'o PCI slots Message-ID: <199707232220.PAA16378@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <199707232130.OAA26614@daffy-duck.cs.washington.edu> from "mef@cs.washington.edu" at Jul 23, 97 02:30:24 pm
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> It all depends on what Vinay plans to do with the i960 processor. If > he intends to communicate to it via the I2O message protocol, then I > doubt that FreeBSD will be able to publically distribute that source > code for at least another year. That is, for some stupid reason the > I2O stuff is not in the public domain and there are (ahem) legal > restrictions that are supposed to prevent one from reverse engineering > it. > > To become an I2O member you have to play a pretty penny ($2000). For > $250 you can get an evaluation copy of the I2O specification, which > runs out after 90days. However, you are not supposed to be developing > I2O software without being a member. This makes it kinda hard to > distribute any of that work to none I2O members. :( I would think that would be relatively easy to prosecute as racketeering (under RICO), restraint of trade, and as a monopoly (under Sherman). I would also think that if they started making noises about it, you would quickly see the EFF or a similar organization filing the suit. I don't think it's possible for it to be illegal to write code for hardware you own. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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