On Sun, 2005-02-06 at 19:42 -0800, Dan Hollis wrote: > On Sun, 6 Feb 2005, Jeff Spaleta wrote: > > On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 18:56:27 -0800 (PST), Dan Hollis <goemon@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > isn't samba reverse engineered too? > > funny you should mention this... > > http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050205010415933 > > Well, we know for a 100% fact that drivers/net/forcedeth.c in the current > kernels is reverse engineered. > > http://www.hailfinger.org/carldani/linux/patches/forcedeth/ Last I knew, reverse engineering most certainly was *not* illegal, at least in the US. Some companies and individuals would like us to think so, but even the notorious and much maligned (justifiably) DMCA has a reverse engineering provision. Having reverse engineering provisions in EULAs is, IMNSHO, a scare tactic. Of course, IANAL, so take that with a grain of salt. There's always the one-group-does-the-reverse-engineering-and-docs and second-group-follows-docs-and-does-coding trick, (IOW: clean room) if you want to be extra cautious. The biggest problem with some of the aforementioned technologies is not so much reverse engineering (though I hear the Sorenson codec was b**ch to figure out, which is why it took so long), but patents. Also, another problem with reverse engineering, as Andrew Tridgell brings up in the Groklaw article above, is that it usually yields bad code. Better to have to docs in hand. > IIRC the adaptec scsi drivers are reverse engineered as well. though i > think adaptec eventually came to their senses and started helping years > later. Don't know about the history, but you can download the GPLed source for the driver for at least aacraid cards. It is a year old, I think, and it *appears* that what's in the kernel is a little older, given the version number and some of the significant differences, but the one in the kernel also appears to be actively maintained. Still, from some things I've read googling around, I wonder if rolling in some of the updates from Adaptec would be a good idea. But I digress. Nevertheless, the point is that, yes, Adaptec seems to have a clue when it comes to releasing GPLed drivers (not just specs) for their controllers. -- -Paul Iadonisi Senior System Administrator Red Hat Certified Engineer / Local Linux Lobbyist Ever see a penguin fly? -- Try Linux. GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets