From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Dan Hollis Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 18:14:41 +0000 Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Re: 4D-NXs (was Re: Sync Issues) Message-Id: List-Id: References: In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: linux-sound@vger.kernel.org On Thu, 28 Oct 1999, Joe Miklojcik wrote: > > > * "we think our hardware's proprietary secrets will be revealed > > > if there is a source code driver" > > Uh, isnt this what patents are for? If someone reverse engineers their > > card, they are *completely screwed* unless they have patent protection. > Shhh :) They haven't figured that out yet. It's the only thing saving us > on a lot of the hardware Linux supports. I'm not a lawyer, but I think that > they can deny the right to reverse engineer in a user license, which would > make some drivers illegal. So you reverse engineer them in a country where such shrinkwrap licenses themselves are illegal. Isnt this most of europe? :) Isnt there some precedent law in the US which basically says such licenses are unenforceable? -Dan