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

[Jon Smirl]

Isn't it great how our patent system is having the opposite effect?
Instead of encouraging the spread of ideas it is forcing people to keep
them secret.

--- Joe Krahn <krahn at niehs.nih.gov> wrote:
> Right. In other words, it all makes very little practical sense,
> but is very straight forward to lawyers. Things are more treacherous
> now with the huge number of software methods patents.
> 
> In general, if there are enough hardware users to make the release
> of information profitable to them (the bottom line for any decision),
> then it probably is better to pay internal developers to do the work
> anyhow.
> 
> BUT, I think the internal driver development by ATI and Nvidia could
> do much better with a public bug-tracking system. Maybe this would
> make it too easy for competitors to say "look at all of their bugs".
> 
> Joe Krahn
> 
> Jon Smirl wrote:
> > Talking to some of the Nvidia/ATI people I would say it is more out
> of
> > fear of being sued for patent infrigement that it is a desire to
> keep
> > anything secret. Providing the specs provides documantation for
> someone
> > to sue them with. It's unintentional infringement they are worried
> > about, not intentional.
> > 
> > --- Sean Middleditch <elanthis at awesomeplay.com> wrote:
> > 
> >>On Fri, 2004-07-09 at 10:12, David Eger wrote:
> >>
> >>>I'm curious:
> >>>
> >>>Why don't ATI/Nvidia/etc. ever seem to want to release programming
> >>
> >>specs 
> >>
> >>>for their chips or source code for their drivers?
> >>
> >>This is a really old topic; the answer has been stated very many
> >>times
> >>before in the list archives and elsewhere...
> >>
> >>Long story short, they don't want competitors to know the
> interfaces
> >>to
> >>their hardware, or because they license hardware components from
> >>third
> >>parties, they are legally obligated not to release the hardware
> >>interface information.
> >>-- 
> >>Sean Middleditch <elanthis at awesomeplay.com>
> >>AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.
> >>
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>xorg mailing list
> >>xorg at freedesktop.org
> >>http://freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg
> >>
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > =====
> > Jon Smirl
> > jonsmirl at yahoo.com
> > 
> > 
> > 		
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> 


=====
Jon Smirl
jonsmirl at yahoo.com


		
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