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From: rang@cs.wisc.edu (Anton Rang)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Reverse engineering stuff,.....
Message-ID: <RANG.90Jun13164944@derby.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 13 Jun 90 21:49:44 GMT
References: <1990Jun7.190751.10452@cs.utk.edu>
	<1990Jun7.202044.7800@eng.umd.edu> <41723@apple.Apple.COM>
	<30664@cup.portal.com>
	<1990Jun13.065704.26063@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us>
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In-reply-to: alex@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us's message of 13 Jun 90 06:57:04 GMT

In article <1990Jun13.065704.26063@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us> alex@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Alex Pournelle) writes:
>People I trust, and who know the code intimately, are not scared of
>cloning the ROMs.  And that's the only part that's protected.  The o.s.
>is just a tad bit of work.

  Cloning the Mac ROM functionality would be a lot of work, and people
could probably not use standard system files with cloned ROMs (none of
the patches would work).  It could be done, given time and money; I
don't know what parts of the Mac system are copyrighted/patented and
could lead to trouble.  (I'm not a lawyer.)

>Wake up and smell the caffeine.  How many suits does IBM have extant
>against clone computer makers?  When was the last one settled?

  Remember Apple v. Franklin?  It's possible to clone products and
maintain compatibility (i.e. the Laser, in the Apple world).  But
proving that it doesn't infringe copyrights/whatever could cost quite
a bit of money.  (Apple has big pockets.)

  I still think this would have to be a very well-funded, and fairly
long-term project.  Think about some of the things which would need to
be dealt with:

  * Figuring out how to maintain compatibility with system patches, or
    incorporating them into the new ROMs.

  * Re-implementing large and complex subsystems (Quickdraw and HFS,
    for example).

  It could be done, certainly.  Whether it would be economically
feasible, I don't know....

	Anton, thoughtful
   
+---------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Anton Rang (grad student) | rang@cs.wisc.edu | UW--Madison |
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