[Xorg] why is it so hard to get specs?

[Dermot McGahon]

On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 10:12:12 -0400, David Eger <eger at havoc.gtf.org> wrote:

> Is there anything we as a community can do to encourage them to be more
> forthcoming?  Could someone working at some said company proffer an
> honest answer?

David,

I don't work for one of the companies, but as far as I understand
the issue, it's about keeping expensively researched technology
secret for long enough to make money from it.

I think they are afraid that if they are very open with specs that
their h/w becomes reverse engineerable and thus open to copying
by: (a) competitors; (b) companies in the far east.

Hard to blame them really, if this is the case, but perhaps there
is more to it than that.


Dermot.
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