PROMs and Copyrights...

[Ord Millar]

I recently read something posted by an aftermarket developer who claimed
that it was illegal to distribute parts of the original code on his chips.
His solution was to only override some parts (mostly data values), and let
the untouched parts run from the ECU's EEPROM.

I would guess that it depends on whether or not I already had a factory ECU
with the same code in it.

Would Hypertech have been allowed to sell chips with copies of GM code to
people who didn't already have GM ECUs with the same code in them?  (Kind of
moot, since no one else would normally want it).

I remember hearing about a copyright case a while ago (but for PC software),
where the deciding issue ended up being the percentage of bytes that were
different from the original.

Ord


-----Original Message-----
From: Mike <trinity at golden.net>
To: diy_efi at efi332.eng.ohio-state.edu <diy_efi at efi332.eng.ohio-state.edu>
Date: Sunday, January 24, 1999 3:56 AM
Subject: Re: PROMs and Copyrights...


>>
>>I can tell you (as a past Hypertech employee) that copying the stock
binary,
>>making changes, and then selling it as your own work is NOT illegal.  This
>>has been a legal  issue of long debate.  Once the binary is modified, it
is
>>no longer copyrighted material.  Re-selling of non-modified binaries IS
>>illegal, however.
>>
>