License violation?

License violation?

[Jiri Slaby]

Hi.

I have a GPL driver (written by me) with workarounds, since I hadn't know-how, 
when I wrote it. Now I've got 2.4 proprietary driver from the vendor. Is use of 
the 2.4 driver know-how OK? (And could be such driver merged?)

These are lines from the proprietary driver:
	   IMPORTANT SAFETY & LEGAL INFORMATION:

         This source file is provided as part of the SensAble
         Technologies PDD/GHOST Software Development Toolkit in
         order to facilitate the use of PCI-based PHANToM haptic
         interface devices across various Linux kernel revisions.
         It is meant to be recompiled without modification.  It
         should NOT be modified in any way. Any modification of
         this source code will void any and all software and/or
         hardware warranties and maintenance agreements with
         SensAble Technologies or its assignees.  Furthermore,
         modification of this source file may result in the damage
         or failure of the user's hardware.  SensAble Technologies
         and its assignees assume no responsibility for any damage
         or injury resulting from the modification of this file.

It's obvious, that if somebody was using the GPL driver, he'll lost warranty et 
al. (But this is not the question.)

thanks,
-- 
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xslaby/            Jiri Slaby
faculty of informatics, masaryk university, brno, cz
e-mail: jirislaby gmail com, gpg pubkey fingerprint:
B674 9967 0407 CE62 ACC8  22A0 32CC 55C3 39D4 7A7E

Hnus <hnus@fi.muni.cz> is an alias for /dev/null

Re: License violation?

[Jeremy Fitzhardinge]

Jiri Slaby wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I have a GPL driver (written by me) with workarounds, since I hadn't
> know-how, when I wrote it. Now I've got 2.4 proprietary driver from
> the vendor. Is use of the 2.4 driver know-how OK? (And could be such
> driver merged?)
>
> These are lines from the proprietary driver:
>        IMPORTANT SAFETY & LEGAL INFORMATION:
>
>         This source file is provided as part of the SensAble
>         Technologies PDD/GHOST Software Development Toolkit in
>         order to facilitate the use of PCI-based PHANToM haptic
>         interface devices across various Linux kernel revisions.
>         It is meant to be recompiled without modification.  It
>         should NOT be modified in any way. Any modification of
>         this source code will void any and all software and/or
>         hardware warranties and maintenance agreements with
>         SensAble Technologies or its assignees.  Furthermore,
>         modification of this source file may result in the damage
>         or failure of the user's hardware.  SensAble Technologies
>         and its assignees assume no responsibility for any damage
>         or injury resulting from the modification of this file.
>
> It's obvious, that if somebody was using the GPL driver, he'll lost
> warranty et al. (But this is not the question.) 

Seems reasonable to me.   This isn't license text.  They're not saying
you can't modify it; they're just saying you own the pieces if you
modify it and break it.  Is there an actual license?

    J

Re: License violation?

[Jiri Slaby]

Jeremy Fitzhardinge napsal(a):
> Jiri Slaby wrote:
>> Hi.
>>
>> I have a GPL driver (written by me) with workarounds, since I hadn't
>> know-how, when I wrote it. Now I've got 2.4 proprietary driver from
>> the vendor. Is use of the 2.4 driver know-how OK? (And could be such
>> driver merged?)
>>
>> These are lines from the proprietary driver:
>>        IMPORTANT SAFETY & LEGAL INFORMATION:
>>
>>         This source file is provided as part of the SensAble
>>         Technologies PDD/GHOST Software Development Toolkit in
>>         order to facilitate the use of PCI-based PHANToM haptic
>>         interface devices across various Linux kernel revisions.
>>         It is meant to be recompiled without modification.  It
>>         should NOT be modified in any way. Any modification of
>>         this source code will void any and all software and/or
>>         hardware warranties and maintenance agreements with
>>         SensAble Technologies or its assignees.  Furthermore,
>>         modification of this source file may result in the damage
>>         or failure of the user's hardware.  SensAble Technologies
>>         and its assignees assume no responsibility for any damage
>>         or injury resulting from the modification of this file.
>>
>> It's obvious, that if somebody was using the GPL driver, he'll lost
>> warranty et al. (But this is not the question.) 
> 
> Seems reasonable to me.   This isn't license text.  They're not saying
> you can't modify it; they're just saying you own the pieces if you
> modify it and break it.  Is there an actual license?

No other text in there, but simple Copyright:

/* Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Sensable Technologies, Inc.
    All rights reserved.

Aha, I've read it second time, and I get the point now.

regards,
-- 
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xslaby/            Jiri Slaby
faculty of informatics, masaryk university, brno, cz
e-mail: jirislaby gmail com, gpg pubkey fingerprint:
B674 9967 0407 CE62 ACC8  22A0 32CC 55C3 39D4 7A7E

Hnus <hnus@fi.muni.cz> is an alias for /dev/null

Re: License violation?

[Jeremy Fitzhardinge]

Jiri Slaby wrote:
> No other text in there, but simple Copyright:
>
> /* Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Sensable Technologies, Inc.
>    All rights reserved.

Well, I think that means you can use info from that file to make your's
better, but you can't copy actual code.

    J

Re: License violation?

[Jiri Slaby]

Jeremy Fitzhardinge napsal(a):
> Jiri Slaby wrote:
>> No other text in there, but simple Copyright:
>>
>> /* Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Sensable Technologies, Inc.
>>    All rights reserved.
> 
> Well, I think that means you can use info from that file to make your's
> better, but you can't copy actual code.

Nice to hear this, thanks,
-- 
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xslaby/            Jiri Slaby
faculty of informatics, masaryk university, brno, cz
e-mail: jirislaby gmail com, gpg pubkey fingerprint:
B674 9967 0407 CE62 ACC8  22A0 32CC 55C3 39D4 7A7E

Hnus <hnus@fi.muni.cz> is an alias for /dev/null

Re: License violation?

[Jiri Slaby]

Jeremy Fitzhardinge napsal(a):
> Jiri Slaby wrote:
>> Nice to hear this, thanks,
> 
> Don't take it as legal advice.  If you have any agreements with the
> provider of the proprietary driver, you should check with them or a lawyer.

After digging through the whole e-mail from person, who gave me a note to 2.4 
driver source, I found this out:

 > However, we provide source code for PCI kernel driver (attached) so that
 > customers can update it for 2.6 kernel.

I think, it would be no problem in that case.

regards,
-- 
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xslaby/            Jiri Slaby
faculty of informatics, masaryk university, brno, cz
e-mail: jirislaby gmail com, gpg pubkey fingerprint:
B674 9967 0407 CE62 ACC8  22A0 32CC 55C3 39D4 7A7E

Hnus <hnus@fi.muni.cz> is an alias for /dev/null

Re: License violation?

[Alan]

On Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:37:45 -0800
Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@goop.org> wrote:

> Jiri Slaby wrote:
> > No other text in there, but simple Copyright:
> >
> > /* Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Sensable Technologies, Inc.
> >    All rights reserved.
> 
> Well, I think that means you can use info from that file to make your's
> better, but you can't copy actual code.

Have you tried asking them ?

Re: License violation?

[Jiri Slaby]

Alan napsal(a):
> On Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:37:45 -0800
> Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@goop.org> wrote:
>> Jiri Slaby wrote:
>>> No other text in there, but simple Copyright:
>>>
>>> /* Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Sensable Technologies, Inc.
>>>    All rights reserved.
>> Well, I think that means you can use info from that file to make your's
>> better, but you can't copy actual code.
> 
> Have you tried asking them ?

Unfortunately with no reply so far. Maybe something will arrive next week.

regards,
-- 
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xslaby/            Jiri Slaby
faculty of informatics, masaryk university, brno, cz
e-mail: jirislaby gmail com, gpg pubkey fingerprint:
B674 9967 0407 CE62 ACC8  22A0 32CC 55C3 39D4 7A7E

Hnus <hnus@fi.muni.cz> is an alias for /dev/null

Re: License violation?

[David Schwartz]

> I have a GPL driver (written by me) with workarounds, since I hadn't
> know-how, 
> when I wrote it. Now I've got 2.4 proprietary driver from the vendor.
> Is use of 
> the 2.4 driver know-how OK? (And could be such driver merged?)

Unless you made some kind of agreement with the copyright holder or did
not lawfully acquire the software, you have every right to study it and
learn from it. You have every right to use your own knowledge to implement
a driver any way you want.

What you can't do, of course, is steal protected expression from the
driver. Function is not protected. Facts are not protected.

DS