Re: Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] VGA BIOS source code

[John R. Hogerhuis]

I'm not a lawyer, and anyone who worries about such things should talk
to one, but as far as reference docs go:

If they haven't patented some trickiness in their interface, and you
haven't signed an NDA, and it's not a trade secret (it ain't if the
document is freely downloadable) then there is probably very little to
worry about other than upsetting them enough to stop giving out info in
the future (which would be bad in the bigger picture for Linux). But I
don't see how software emulation of their chip is going to impact their
hardware sales in any obvious way.

Copyright infringement is the only thing one would really have to worry
about, and unless you are redistributing the document I'm not sure how
that would come into play.

-- John.

On Tue, 2004-06-01 at 11:05, Bartosz Fabianowski wrote:
> > Well the VMware 'chip' interface is documented,  you could implement 
> > it, however I doubt they'd be happy for you to use their drivers.
> 
> Actually, I wonder how happy Cirrus Logic will be if people use their
> reference manuals to implement a GD54xx emulation. Clearly, each manual
> states right at the beginning that you are not allowed to use it as a
> basis for manufacturing or selling anything, unless you have written
> permission from them. QEMU is not being sold by anybody AFAIK, but the
> question whether writing an emulator is manufacturing an item (a
> software item) still remains.
> 
> - Bartosz
> 
> 
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