proprietary BIOS src leagality? (was: RE: [OpenBIOS] award bios...)

[Parag Patel]

In message <HBEEKNPPKIMFLJHGHNHMOEBLCBAA.jason at tommyk.com>, "Jason Gurtz" writes:
>
>As long as none of the proprietary code is used in Open BIOS, what
>whould be the harm?

Even looking at the proprietary code, then working on anything similar
such as the free version is enough to get one sued, at least here in the
USA.  That's why way back when the Phoenix folks had to do a complete
"clean-room" re-implementation of the IBM BIOS, and *still* had to deal
with legal hassles.

If you really need to look at the proprietary code, you should contact
its owner and cut a deal of some sort.  Looking at this sort of code
without some sort of license or agreement can leave you, and worse,
anyone who hires you, in a legal pickle.

It's far better to ask questions of someone with legal access to the
code and use their answers (but no code) to work on OpenBIOS.


	-- Parag Patel
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