From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Dec 21 23:27:51 2000 From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Dec 21 23:27:48 2000 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from femail6.sdc1.sfba.home.com (femail6.sdc1.sfba.home.com [24.0.95.86]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7AE3537B402 for ; Thu, 21 Dec 2000 23:27:48 -0800 (PST) Received: from cx443070b ([24.0.36.170]) by femail6.sdc1.sfba.home.com (InterMail vM.4.01.03.00 201-229-121) with SMTP id <20001222072747.FNQR15927.femail6.sdc1.sfba.home.com@cx443070b>; Thu, 21 Dec 2000 23:27:47 -0800 Message-ID: <000901c06be9$00910570$aa240018@cx443070b> From: "Jeremiah Gowdy" To: "SteveB" , "Drew Eckhardt" , References: Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs Linux, Solaris, and NT Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 23:30:03 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > Trouble is there is no consistency in the rulings. United States Code Title 17 Chapter 12 Section 1201 Subsection (f) My basic interpretation of this is, if you legally own a copy of the software (firmware is software), you can legally reverse engineer the software for the purpose of achiving interoperability. Therefore, if you own a piece of hardware, and you have no driver for the hardware, or the driver provided is not acceptable, you have the right to reverse engineer the firmware in order to write your own driver, thereby achiving interoperability. According to part 3 of subsection (f) the information gathered by the person doing the reverse engineering may be shared with anyone else who wishes to use the knowledge to achive interoperability as defined in parts 1 and 4. Hence, if I write a driver from my reverse engineering to achieve interoperability between FreeBSD and the firmware in my device, I may share that driver with anyone else who plans to use it for that same purpose. This section is part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Title 17 Chapter 12 Section 1201). a.. (f) Reverse Engineering. - (1) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a)(1)(A), a person who has lawfully obtained the right to use a copy of a computer program may circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a particular portion of that program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing those elements of the program that are necessary to achieve interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and that have not previously been readily available to the person engaging in the circumvention, to the extent any such acts of identification and analysis do not constitute infringement under this title. a.. (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a)(2) and (b), a person may develop and employ technological means to circumvent a technological measure, or to circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure, in order to enable the identification and analysis under paragraph (1), or for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, if such means are necessary to achieve such interoperability, to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title. a.. (3) The information acquired through the acts permitted under paragraph (1), and the means permitted under paragraph (2), may be made available to others if the person referred to in paragraph (1) or (2), as the case may be, provides such information or means solely for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title or violate applicable law other than this section. a.. (4) For purposes of this subsection, the term ''interoperability'' means the ability of computer programs to exchange information, and of such programs mutually to use the information which has been exchanged. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message