Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!watstat.waterloo.edu!dmurdoch
From: dmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu (Duncan Murdoch)
Subject: Re: Legality of distributing Borland's BGI files
Message-ID: <1991Apr16.175728.6036@maytag.waterloo.edu>
Sender: news@maytag.waterloo.edu (News Owner)
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <500@ceco.ceco.com> <6362@videovax.tv.tek.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1991 17:57:28 GMT
Lines: 33

In article <6362@videovax.tv.tek.com> dougs@videovax.tv.tek.com (Doug Stevens) writes:
>In article <500@ceco.ceco.com>, sung@ceco.ceco.com (Sung Han) writes:
>> 
>> If I write a program that uses Borland's graphics BGI interface, and decide to
>> distribute it, can I also ship out the corresponding runtime BGI file (e.g.,
>> the 'egavga.bgi' file)? 
>
>I formally asked Borland this question when TC 1.5 came out, and the answer
>was a definite NO. 
>
>The suggestion at the time was to use BGI2OBJ to change them to object files,
>add them to your graphics library, and link the library with your application.
>It is legal to ship the application as long as you follow their other guidelines
>regarding copyright statements for applications linked to Borland libraries.

You were given misinformation, or perhaps their policy has changed.  In the 
license in the front of the TC 2.0 reference manual, it says:

"Included in the Turbo C diskettes are several support files that contain
encoded hardware and font information used by the standard graphics library
(GRAPHICS.LIB).  These files, which can be listed by typing DIR *.CHR and 
DIR *.BGI, are proprietary to Borland International.  You may use these
files with the programs you create with Turbo C for your own personal use.
*** In addition, to the extent the programs you write and compile using the
Turbo C language compiler make use of these support files, you may distribute
these support files in combination with such programs, provided that you do
not use, give away, or sell the support files separately, and all copies
of such programs bear a copyright notice.  ***"

The emphasis *** is mine, not Borland's.  So are any typos.

Duncan Murdoch
dmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu