PROMs and Copyrights...

[Clarence L.Snyder]

Dave Williams wrote:
> 
> -> 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?
> =================================== http://home1.gte.net/42/index.htm
> 
What you buy when you buy something with code in it is a licence to use
that code on the one device it is installed in. Some code suppliers
(read pogrammers) specifically prohibit dissassembly of their code for
ANY purpose.
Now, IF you have a licence to use the code on your ECU / car, you have a
licence to use it. If you modify it, as opposed to write new code (using
none of the original), you are still bound by that licence - one ECU.
You cannot sell the modified code. You cannot use it on another ECU.
However, if someone else has an ecu with licenced code, charging to
modify that licenced code for them could be construed as legal -
assuming there was no prohibition on dissassembling that code.
The only situation that allows reselling code is if you actually buy the
rights to the program and are supplied by the programmer with source
code. You then OWN the code, not just a licence to use the code. Even in
these situations, sometimes you are given a limited licence to
distribute the code, or to use it in your own product. For instance,
true type fonts are licenced to word processor programmers for inclusion
in there programs - and MS Windows is OEM licenced to comanies like IBM
and Compaq for distribution ONLY with their systems. They cannot sell a
copy to you if you own only a Gateway computer, for instance.