Cubic Dollars

[Greg Hermann]

Hi All--

Some more thoughts on ecm's and their code and copyrights:

1. A copyright is something that must be actively obtained by the original
creator of copyrightable material. One of the active steps which must be
taken to protect one's copyright interests is to mark each copy of the
material with the symbol (c in a circle) and date, and the creator's name.
(This may be done only on the copyright page of a bound book, to be
sufficient.) For loose leaf stuff, like engineering plans or
specifications, it is far wiser to mark each sheet if you want protection.
As to PCB's, I believe that they need to be marked appropriately  if the
creator wants any protection. For software, I believe that each copy
distributed must contain a notice, and each diskette must be marked.

IF THESE STEPS ARE NOT CARRIED OUT, NO COPYRIGHT PROTECTION MAY BE CLAIMED!!!!

2. You can publish and distribute material (any of the above) with the
markings, and be protected, so long as you take appropriate steps to
perfect (complete) the copyright within a fixed length of time. This step
involves submitting a record copy of the material to DC, which gets
archived.

3. I have never looked--does GM (for instance) put the c in a circle symbol
on their ecu PCB's??? (BRUCE???)
(Together with the other required info.) I have seen this stuff on plenty
of PCB's, but dunno as to ecu's. IF THE COPYRIGHT SYMBOL AND OTHER REQUIRED
INFO IS NOT ON THE PCB, THE BOARD DESIGN IS PUBLIC DOMAIN. PERIOD!!! YOU
WOULD BE FREE TO COPY IT AT WILL!!!!

4. I know of no copyright info that you get (not to mention any agreement)
in re the software in the ecu that you get or execute when you buy the car
(see earlier post on this), so the software in mfgr ecu's has about gotta
be public domain stuff!!

HERE IS WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING:

Do any of the software oriented folks out there know what material you have
to submit to complete a copyright on software???? Or does anybody even
bother cuz of the development cycle being so short????

Is source code, etc. required as a part of the submission??

If I am wrong about the software in the mfgr ecu's being devoid of any
copyright protection, then all the documentation, as required to complete
the copyright, just as for any other kind of software should be public
record wherever it is that such archives are kept. (Prolly available on the
web!)

If the mfgrs really have copyrighted their ecu software, the copyright
archives might well be a treasure trove of info for hacking them, depending
on how much documentation must be submitted to get the copyright!!!!!!!

If, as I suspect very strongly, the mfgrs have not copyrighted their ecu
software, we,  and all the chip-makers too, are, in fact, free to do any
damn thing we want to with it, including pass out exact copies of it,
either for free or for profit!!

Either way, no bloody wonder the mfgrs are tight with the details of their
software!!

Regards, Greg