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

[Jon Smirl]

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.
> 
> 
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> 


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


		
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