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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!newshost.telstra.net!asstdc.scgt.oz.au!metro!metro!munnari.OZ.AU!news.mel.connect.com.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!vic.news.telstra.net!act.news.telstra.net!psgrain!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!Germany.EU.net!Dortmund.Germany.EU.net!interface-business.de!usenet From: j@ida.interface-business.de (J Wunsch) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.x,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Why to not buy Matrox Millennium Date: 26 Mar 1996 13:39:52 GMT Organization: interface business GmbH, Dresden Lines: 19 Message-ID: <4j8s38$ppc@innocence.interface-business.de> References: <4j21ph$crr@slappy.cs.utexas.edu> <4j3muv$34m@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu> <4j3v64$1rq@virtech.aib.com> <4j53m9$lv1@news1.halcyon.com> <4j72or$lcv@sol.towson.edu> Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de (Joerg Wunsch) NNTP-Posting-Host: ida.interface-business.de X-Newsreader: knews 0.9.3 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.apps:13708 comp.os.linux.development.system:20064 comp.os.linux.x:27701 comp.os.linux.hardware:34453 comp.os.linux.setup:47383 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:303 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:2799 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:2576 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:16064 brown@midget.towson.edu (Richard Brown) writes: > Reverse engineering software licensed from such a developer is no different > than doing the same for software provided by the hardware manufacturer and > included in the package. Software license agreements are subject to the underlying law of the countries where the software is sold. As somebody else has been noting, disassembling the Matrox driver is most likely legal within the European Community, since it is required for interoperatibility purposes, and Matrox refuses to be co-operative to solve the problems without requiring a reverse-engineering. ``Shrink-wrapp'' software licenses are (AFAIK) simply junk in Europe. -- J"org Wunsch Unix support engineer joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de http://www.interface-business.de/~j