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Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 22:56:21 +0000
From: Jamie Lokier <jamie@shareable.org>
To: Larry McVoy <lm@bitmover.com>, Adrian Bunk <bunk@fs.tum.de>,
       Larry McVoy <lm@bitmover.com>, Rik van Riel <riel@imladris.surriel.com>,
       Andrea Arcangeli <andrea@e-mind.com>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: openbkweb-0.0
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Larry McVoy wrote:
> Please show me the case law which says we have to give you our technology,
> for free, and we do not have the right to say "no way unless you agree to
> not reverse engineer".

Correct.  You do not have to give your software for free.  (In
European patent terminology it is not called technology, by the way).

Correct.  You have the right to say "no way unless you agree not to
reverse engineer".

> Lots of law says "if you paid for this product, the seller may not impose
> the following restrictions" with reverse engineering being amongst those.
> 
> I do not have any data which says that the same law applies in the case of
> a no charge copy of the software, do you?

Someone may copy and use your software _without_ agreeing to the license.

Then you can sue them for breach of copyright.

You will win, unless their copying was fair use.

Reverse engineering for interoperability is a form of fair use in many
countries, including Germany and the UK.

Draw your own conclusion :)

-- Jamie
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