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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!pravda.aa.msen.com!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!news1.digex.net!news3.digex.net!digex.net!not-for-mail From: zetan@cpcug.org (David Lerner) 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 23:21:01 -0500 Organization: Capital PC User Group Rockville, MD USA Lines: 26 Message-ID: <zhLWxIiCZ/IW083yn@cpcug.org> References: <4j21ph$crr@slappy.cs.utexas.edu> <4j36ev$prl@news.Informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.DE> <4j3dl9$1jv@solaris.cc.vt.edu> <lVfVxIiCZXEF083yn@cpcug.org> <VLADIMIR.96Mar24185848@Burner.dsg.stanford.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: cpcug.org Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.apps:13721 comp.os.linux.development.system:20089 comp.os.linux.x:27737 comp.os.linux.hardware:34497 comp.os.linux.setup:47442 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:306 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:2803 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:2582 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:16083 In article <VLADIMIR.96Mar24185848@Burner.dsg.stanford.edu>, vladimir@Burner.dsg.stanford.edu (Vladimir Vukicevic) wrote: > In article <lVfVxIiCZXEF083yn@cpcug.org> zetan@cpcug.org (David Lerner) writes: > > > I am not a lawyer, but I do try to keep up to date on this issue. I have > > seen conflicting legal rulings about disassembly. One ruling is that it > > involved copying in violation of copyright, and the other that congress, > > in not allowing protection of the underlying algorithm, did not intend > > to prevent the only available means of inspecting the published algorithm. > > However, I don't think people are suggesting disassembly of the drivers -- > but instead allowing the driver to execute, and monitoring registers > and accesses to the card. Would this be illegal? > > -- Vladimir > -- vladimir@intrepid.com > This would be perfectly legal. Monitoring registers is a technique for reverse engineering that avoids the copyright issues. Of cours, the XFree Foundation may not wish to distribute code that is produced by sugh reverse engineering. David Lerner <zetan@cpcug.org>