From: "John R. Hogerhuis" <jhoger@...>
Sep 25, 2004
On Sat, 2004-09-25 at 02:04, pittmanr99 wrote:
As a programmer the typical policy is not do any patent searches.
a) I don't know much about patents anyway -- which ones will hold up in
court and which won't? Just about all tech patents are granted after
enough changes. It doesn't mean that the patent isn't invalid for
various reasons (prior art, etc.)
b) I can't afford to pay a real lawyer to do a search for every idea I
think of implementing
c) If I was sued for infringement and the plaintiff won, and I knowingly
infringed the patent, I would be liable for triple damages.
As far as legal issues here, you are more likely to run afoul of the
DMCA for trafficking in an illegal circumvention device for producing
code that breaks the encryption.
So if you are planning on going that route, you are clearly into
violation of law which is a whole other matter than patent infringement.
On copyright issues, which CJ brought up: whether a (C) notice appears
in firmware doesn't really matter. I'd warrant most binary software does
not embed a (C) string anywhere.
According to the Berne Convention, as soon as a work is fixed in a
tangible medium it is automatically protected by copyright. The only
thing that gives you a right to make copies/ redistribute it is a
license. None of us have such a license.
From: "pittmanr99" <pittmanr99@...>
Sep 26, 2004
wrote:
something
Patent
the
security
an
have no
up in
idea I
knowingly
producing
infringement.
appears
does
Your points about the DMCA, patents, and copyrights are well taken. I
hadn't even thought about the DMCA.
The security key I mentioned in my earlier message might prevent any
change to the machine no matter how it's introduced. I hope it
doesn't affect the parallel port, because that seems to be the only
viable method for changing the flash without using cryptography. I'm
afraid, though, that any software modification could potentially
violate the law.
I hope I'm not heading toward a legal brick wall by trying to add
functionality to the Mailstation. It would be a shame to let such a
portable machine languish on just email.
From: "John R. Hogerhuis" <jhoger@...>
Sep 26, 2004
On Sat, 2004-09-25 at 21:40, pittmanr99 wrote:
There is lots of software around that is in violation of the DMCA but is
still widely used, such as DeCSS used by Linux users to view DVDs.
The trick is the original code was developed by someone Jon Johansson in
the Netherlands, and you generally have to download the code from non-us
servers.
I believe there is a DMCA exemption for legitimate security research, if
that helps you.
In any event, there is no encryption key issue on the unit CJ has been
working with via the parallel port.
The encryption is there (quite rightly) to protect your mailstation from
being attacked from the Internet. It is not intended to prevent
reflashing the unit. Anyway, CJ has already succeeded in altering his
firmware via the parallel link so we have a proof-of-concept right
there.
The DMCA doesn't tell you what you can do with your own hardware. It
covers trafficking in circumvention devices. So if you author and
distribute a circumvention device then you are in violation of the DMCA.
If you created it but didn't distribute it, or you gave your unit to
someone else and they unlocked it for you, for example would not be a
DMCA problem.
Of course, IANAL, so take all this with a grain of salt.
I personally hate the DMCA, software and business method patents,
virtually perpetual copyrights, and the abandonware problems our
copyright system creates. They are severe and intolerable limits on
Freedom.
Unfortunately freedom in the software and media realm isn't taken to be
an important issue by the average citizen, so the law is going to stay
screwed up for a long time, I think.
From: "jewaalkes" <jwaalkes@...>
Oct 4, 2004
wro=
te:
Johansso=
n in
n=
on-us
Netherlands, Norway, what's the difference?
(URL)
cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nl.html
(URL)
cations/factbook/geos/no.html
(hint: the Norwegians like to use zeros in t=
heir names "=F8" and
spell their words funny. We just like to spell our wor=
ds funny.
That, and their country looks somewhat different from ours)
Whi=
le us Dutch lads would love to take the credit, it's hardly
deserved :)
ht=
tp://www.google.com/search?hl=3Den&ie=3DUTF-8&q=3Ddvd+jon+norway
That sai=
d, I have a few Mailstations that I would love to see get
hacked :)
John
=
From: "John R. Hogerhuis" <jhoger@...>
Oct 4, 2004
On Mon, 2004-10-04 at 00:39, jewaalkes wrote:
Sorry! In fact I do know the difference. Somehow my fingers got ahead of
my brain.
Thanks for the correction.