From: dwex@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (david.e.wexelblat)
Subject: Re: Free software and the future of support for Diamond products
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 13:03:59 GMT
Keywords: Diamond, free-software

In article <1992Sep09.203305.18082@digibd.com> rick@digibd.com (Rick Richardson) writes:
> dwex@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (david.e.wexelblat) writes:
> 
> >Diamond, makers of the SpeedStar and Stealth series of SVGA cards, have
> >developed a new hardware technology for video dot-clock selection.  The
> >current boards that have this new technology are the SpeedStar 24, the
> >SpeedStar 24X, and the Steath boards.  Diamond considers this hardware
> >technology proprietary, and feel that giving out information on how to
> >program this hardware will yield a competetive advantage to their
> >competitors.
> 
> OK, so they are trying to protect this as a "trade secret".  If
> you discover a trade secret in legal ways, you are free to blab.
> 

Of course.  But how do you PROVE that that trade secret was discovered
in a legal way?

> >This position makes it impossible to support these boards on operating
> >systems that do not use the BIOS (e.g. Unix), unless one is willing
> >to sign a non-disclosure agreement with Diamond.  Obviously, this is
> >impossible for software for which the source code is freely available.
> 
> Or, unless someone discovers the secret and blabs.
> 
> >know that Diamond's policy has changed.  Be aware that if you disassemble
> >their BIOS, you are risking a lawsuit.  We will not assume that liability,
> >so don't even ask!
> 
> One can discover the trade secret without disassembling the BIOS.
> [disassembling the BIOS is probably legal, too, since this comes
> under the fair use provisions of the Copyright laws; I've never
> yet seen a shrink-wrap license wrapped around a VGA board which
> would put additional limits on fair use like software licenses.]
> 
> One can put an emulator into a PC (or just a logic analyzer will do),
> run the BIOS, and see what I/O's are going out to the board to set the
> clocks.
> 

There are any number of ways to determine the information we need.  But
the bottom line is that (in this country, anyway) anyone can be sued for
just about anything, with or without justification.  Now take a look at
my .signature, and think about what would happen if Diamond decided that
they didn't like what we were doing.  Right or wrong, I would almost
definitely be out of a job.  I'm not going to risk that for a piece
of hackerware.  My cohorts, who are in a less intractable position on 
this matter, have agreed with the position I am required to take.

So the bottom line for me is that I don't want to know about any of this
stuff, unless I am convinced that there's no way that any litigation will
be brought.  I don't care about win or lose.  The issue is will the action
be brought at all.

> The Diamond 24X is likely to be fairly ubiquitous in the cheap clones
> (I think Zeos ships it, for example), and these are, of course,
> exactly the type of people who'll be wanting XFree386.  I think
> Computer City is selling them for $175.
> 

Well, one of the responses to our Diamond mail survey was from Rick Kemp
at SCO.  I quote:

	We have no plans on supporting their cards at anything but
	640x480 resolution.  They have refused to tell us how their
	cards work, and we have told all of our distributors to
	discontinue carrying them (Gateway 2000 and Zeos).

So we'll see.  The fact that SCO is having trouble doesn't bode well
for our winning this battle.

> -Rick
> -- 
> Rick Richardson		Email: rick@digibd.com	This space intentionally
> Senior Staff Engineer	Fax:   (612) 943-0803	blank until 1996 elections.
> DigiBoard, Inc.		Tel:   (612) 943-5383
> Eden Prairie, MN	Radio: N0NMY


People may think I'm being selfish, or overly cautious.  Well, I am.  I'm
the most visible of the people involved in this, and the one employed
by the biggest corporation.  We're doing this for fun.  Going to court
and/or losing my job is NOT my idea of fun (1/2 :->).

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