PROMs and Copyrights...

[Dave Williams]

-> 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.

 By US law copying, modifying, and reselling code is a Federal crime.
Several states also have anti-hacking and anti-piracy laws that cover
this.

 Hypertech and others get away with their practices because the OEMs
have chosen, for whatever reasons, not to take them to court.  There
aren't any Copyright Police looking around for violations; GM or Ford or
whoever has to set the ball rolling.

 Just because Hypertech and others are not being prosecuted doesn't make
what they're doing legal - all any OEM would have to do is file, and it
would an open-and-shut rubber stamp trial.  There are ample precedents
on the subject of piracy of ROM code - IBM, Apple, and Phoenix BIOS all
filed suit against code pirates and won.

 I've discussed this subject with several chip vendors, who all seem to
engage in the same kind of wishful thinking as Hypertech.

 Personally, I don't think the chip vendors are hurting anyone, and by
some lights they might even be doing the OEMs a favor.  But the law says
what the chip vendors are doing is unlawful and actionable, and
pretending it isn't is merely self delusion.

==dave.williams at chaos.lrk.ar.us======================================
I've got a secret / I've been hiding / under my skin / | Who are you?
my heart is human / my blood is boiling / my brain IBM |   who, who?
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