From owner-freebsd-current Thu Aug 8 14:46:16 2002 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 E58A637B400 for ; Thu, 8 Aug 2002 14:46:14 -0700 (PDT) Received: from gull.mail.pas.earthlink.net (gull.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.84]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 49E8B43E4A for ; Thu, 8 Aug 2002 14:46:14 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert2@mindspring.com) Received: from pool0394.cvx40-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net ([216.244.43.139] helo=mindspring.com) by gull.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 17cv6P-0000qP-00; Thu, 08 Aug 2002 14:45:53 -0700 Message-ID: <3D52E65D.15094C72@mindspring.com> Date: Thu, 08 Aug 2002 14:45:01 -0700 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Julian Elischer Cc: Katsushi Kobayashi , Andrea Campi , freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Firewire support References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Julian Elischer wrote: > On Thu, 8 Aug 2002, Katsushi Kobayashi wrote: > > Did you suggest the same API should be used on both Darwin and FreeBSD ? > > Or, should we share the same code on the device driver level ? > > > > Although I have not read the terms and condition carefully, I am afraid > > if once > > read the source code, I cannot write any firewire kernel code. > > There is no problem with that.. > The courts have said that what you know in your head can not be > withheld from your use. > You may not be able to DIRECTLY COPY it but you can use it as a source > of information. > (depending on the coppyright you may even be able to copy it of course :-) He is in Japan. Japan is one of the few places, besides the U.S., which permits software patents. In additioan, they have a number of draconian laws about reverse engineering, and so on, similar to the laws that have been recently passed or are in the process of being passed in the U.S.. You can not sell or rent a game cartridge for a console game there, for example. He may need someone else to agree to the license for him, and then document the API without coping the information directly. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message