PROMs and Copyrights...

[Mike]

I know this is a stupid question and it's not directly EFI-related, but can
someone educate me on the legalities, specifically, copyrights and
software/firmware,  associated with reading OEM PROMs, "reverse engineering"
them and even on "publishing" findings on, say, one's web page? Does reading
the PROM not constitute making a copy of the firmware? Is this automatically
"illegal"? 

I guess I make backup copies of some Microsquash software I buy and that's
legal so reading the binary out of the PROM could be seen as making a backup
copy. But what about publishing, in the public domain, information about
those PROM contents or even making the contents available for download by
others? Many have downloadable binaries on their sites and the diy_efi ftp
site is chalk full of them.

Suppose I wanted to publish on my web page a list of modifications I had
done to the PROM in my Probe GT (i.e. addresses, what the bytes were and
what they are now and why)...is this "bad"?

Suppose I wanted to show people how some logic worked so I published a few
lines of code from the output of my disassembler on my page...is this bad?

Suppose I wanted to show people tables...say, before (stock) and after
(modified)...is this bad?

I've noticed some people put "disclaimers" in their posts when mailing the
list with info like "This is for educational purposes only" or "This work
was accomplished without the aid of any <insert manufacturer name>
proprietary material" or some such. Are these really needed and if so, why?
How does their presence absolve the poster of any legal issues? Has anyone
ever received scary letters from GM or Ford or whatever?

I've long suspected that companies like G-Force, Dinan, Hypertech, ADS, JET
et al cannot possibly all have agreements with all of the car companies
whose PROMs they tweak...or do they? Somehow it seems unlikely that GM or
BMW or Volkswagen would disclose to them technical information about their
systems and what to modify. But how else would, say, Hypertech come out with
the Hypertech programmer for LT1s without such insider information so soon
after the new cars ('Vette, Impala SS etc) were released?

I know in the big scheme of things that this is really pretty small potatoes
but it has sorta bugged me for a bit. 

Any opinions? Any knowledge?

--
 Mike