[openbeos] Re: Sunday amusement
- From: "Donovan Schulteis" <deej@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 01:02:53 -0500
> > Appending the previous e-mail. I have asked my lawyer
> > friend regarding derivative work and that the
> > implementation is original. The question lies
> > where does the copyright end (plus enforcement).
> >
> > Does anyone know of other open source effort that has
> > taken the closed source, un-modified, header files as
> > the basis of its new implementation?
>
> Whay not worry about this if it arises.
> If Palm really gave a rat they would have posted a
> cease and decist notice at BeUnited months ago.
> Palm doesn't care about BeOS or OBOS.
> Even if they did it would be rather bad PR for
> them, in the geek world, to start getting heavy handed
> over things that they have already stated they don't
> care about.
Should we worry? Yes.
Palm is well aware of OBOS at this time. An official request even went
out to them asking to loosen NDA restrictions of ex-Be engineers so
that they could advise/assist the OBOS teams on issues not pertaining
to sensitive PalmOS issues (no answer, as usual). They have not said a
word. They don't care... for now...
I think the problem would not arise for at least a couple of years -
OBOS distros start doing well, and Palm sinks lower than it already is
(financially, that is). Then they might look at it to raise some
capital from those distributors.
Or picture this, someone takes the OBOS code, modifies it, and then
starts selling PDA-like devices with it, or even just licensing it to
hardware manufacturers. Something out of the control of OBOS,
BeUnited, all of us. These devices directly compete with Palm. Palm
would suddenly care. Where would they attack? Directly at the heart
of the matter - those that "reverse engineered" _their_ IP - OBOS.
AOL is just now asking for monetary damages from MS for Netscape.
Apple didn't get around to sueing MS until far after Windows came out
later - Xerox to Apple even longer than that. They won't care until it
matters to them in their pocketbooks.
No, they haven't said a word to anyone that they care, as one would
have expected by now... but they haven't "blessed" the project either,
which leaves future legal options open to them.
Deej
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