PROMs and Copyrights...

[Greg Hermann]

>>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?
>
>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.
>
>To answer your question directly, it would be my guess that to display,
>dissect, explain, or otherwise USE the stock image isn't illegal, but to
>sell it would be.  There's no such thing as plagiarism on binary data...
>modify just a byte, and then you can call it your own.  I'm sure things get
>more complicated when you deal with commercial software that has user
>interfaces and so forth... then the images and interface could be protected,
>I'd assume.   Otherwise, you would see hack programs like "Microsoftish
>Words" selling for 10 cents on the dollar of the original program, with all
>the functionality.
>
>And, Hypertech doesn't get any "inside information" from the manufacturers.
>Time to market on new factory releases is only possible by purchasing the
>first car in town of that model, getting started immediately, and working
>hard.  Unforeseen technical challenges on selected models will always hurt
>time to market, of course.
>
>-Brock

Thanks, Brock--good stuff for all to know and be aware of!

Regards, Greg