[openbeos] Re: Using GPL-ed sources as the reference

I think your best bet is to contact the original authors of the code and
ask for permission to simply use their code as a point of reference.  If
they say yes, ask for it in writing :-)  If they say no, your probably
better of going elsewhere for that info (the BSD umass code?).  Even if
it's legal to look ove rthe code and use it as a reference, you probably
don't want to get on their bad side and risk anything.

Adam

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004, Siarzhuk Zharski wrote:

> Good afternoon, gentlemen,
>
> I'm not sure, that this is a right place to ask such questions but...
> :-) Well. I'm currently working on USB SCSI interface module for mass
> storage devices. Some standard protocols are already implemented, some
> are partially implemented. Anyway the design of this module allows to
> simply expand it for supporting another protocols that use same commands
> sets and can act as SCSI devices.
>
> I have seen in sources of the usb storage driver from Linux, that there
> are many vendor-specific devices supported, that use non-standard
> protocols. One from those specific devices is FREECOM external USB drive
> that I have and going to support in my driver. I have looking for
> alternative sources of information about FREECOM protocol but there are
> no ones. People say that FREECOM staff is also not friendly to
> third-part developers. Only Linux source code is available for me now.
>
> The Question: Can I use this source as reference information about
> FREECOM protocol for writing my own implementation under BSD license?
> No, I'm not going to copy-paste any info from original sources. Work
> with USB in Linux and BeOS is different - no chance to re-use. Only
> ideas. I need just information how to initialize device, read/write
> data, handle errors etc.
>
> I'm afraid that such kind of using GPL-ed information can make my work
> GPL-ed too. I cannot accept this because I hope that my work can be
> useful in the future for implementing such mass-storages support in OBOS
> and the GPL will be a problem in this case.
>
> What do you think?
>
> As variant I can support two versions of my module: basic with support
> of only standard protocols under BSD license and "extended" with such
> vendor-specific support under GPL.
>
> Thank you for your Attention.
>
> Kind Regards,
>         S.Zharski
>
>
>

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