Re: 'It's just a f*cking kernel...'

[David Kastrup]

"Alfred M. Szmidt" <ams@gnu.org> writes:

>    > If one suspects a copyright violation, one can go to court, and
>    > the court can make the source code avaiable for viewing to the
>    > people involved in the case.
>
>    And it is not like it is impossible to reverse engineer and find out
>    things like that.  In the last case of copyright violation for GPLed
>    code brought by Welte, he was awarded the costs for reverse
>    engineering that had been necessary for figuring out and nailing the
>    violation.
>
> And it isn't even like you really _need_ to RE the thing, you just
> need to provide enough proof to the court that there might be
> copyright infringment going on.  But REing usually is good ammo in
> such cases.

I should have mentioned that the reverse engineering happened only
after the company in question either refused to answer enquirements as
to whether they used the software in question, or denied it.

Don't remember which.

If you indulge in expensive reverse engineering without even asking
the company before, the judge might justly decide to let you sit on
your RE costs.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum