From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jul 26 09:43:44 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BDF9B37B43D for ; Sat, 26 Jul 2003 09:43:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: from harmony.village.org (rover.bsdimp.com [204.144.255.66]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6770443F75 for ; Sat, 26 Jul 2003 09:40:31 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Received: from localhost (warner@rover2.village.org [10.0.0.1]) by harmony.village.org (8.12.9/8.12.3) with ESMTP id h6QGeAFL086360; Sat, 26 Jul 2003 10:40:10 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 10:38:46 -0600 (MDT) Message-Id: <20030726.103846.20535602.imp@bsdimp.com> To: morganw@chemikals.org From: "M. Warner Losh" In-Reply-To: <20030726101853.O2874@catalyst.chemikals.org> References: <20030725.063655.88948403.imp@bsdimp.com> <20030726002537.B19390@carver.gumbysoft.com> <20030726101853.O2874@catalyst.chemikals.org> X-Mailer: Mew version 2.1 on Emacs 21.3 / Mule 5.0 (SAKAKI) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: We have ath, now what about Broadcom? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 16:43:45 -0000 In message: <20030726101853.O2874@catalyst.chemikals.org> Wesley Morgan writes: : On Sat, 26 Jul 2003, Doug White wrote: : : > On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, M. Warner Losh wrote: : > : > > : Can they now take "they took relevant steps" as a defence in a law court? : > > : > > That's a very interesting question. : > : > Which might get answered since some industrious folks aligned with a : > certain other open source operating system are in the process of reverse : > engineering said devices. : : Would not said software be illegal to distribute in the US? That's a very interesting question. The reason I keep saying that is that nobody knows for sure. Nobody has reverse engineered anything, got sued and won (or lost). Just like the GPL has never been tested in a court of law, reverse engineering a driver has never been tested. There have been a few test cases in other areas, and those may or may not apply to drivers. Anybody who gives you a definitive answer is full of s*** and is only speculating based on their legal theories. However, lots of people have reverse engineered devices in the past, and those driver are widely available and those people typically haven't been sued. Some have, however, and desided to settle rather than fight. Warner