> > Unfortunately, anything covered by a patent, as I hinted > > above, is verboten.
Er, doesn't it depend on what is patented? If the h/w itself is patented, but its software-visible interface is not, there should be no problem writing a driver for that h/w. OTOH if the algorithms used in the driver are patented it would be an infringement to reproduce them. > But if I remember my legal and ethics course correctly if you > can arrive at a conclusion through your own research then your > reasonably clear. Not under patent, at least in the US, last I heard. (IANAL) A patent is infringed by any reproduction of the technology involved, even entirely independently. Someone described the justification as avoiding a situation in which it would pay to be ignorant of what others had done. > For example, the drivers are closed source but the hardware itself > is an entirely separate issue. So if you can create your own > drivers by your own research into how the hardware is setup then > the drivers created could licensed under your own terms- open > source or otherwise. At least in the US, that works for copyright but not for patent. > The drivers and hardware may operate together but are separate > items of creativity, therefore do not operate under the same > patent. Again, it depends on exactly what is patented (strictly speaking, what the patent's "claims" are.) _______________________________________________ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
