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From: schoet@ernie.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: uucp source copyright status - IMPORTANT
Message-ID: <17953@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 20-Mar-87 20:35:57 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.17953
Posted: Fri Mar 20 20:35:57 1987
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Reply-To: schoet@ernie.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Steve Schoettler)
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Keywords: copyright uucp uucico
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  There's a method of "copying" another program that seems to have held
in court in the past:

  Someone with access to the source of the program in question studies it
  carefully and then writes up a description of protocols, interfaces, and
  functional diagrams.

  This is then handed to a programmer who does not have access to any of the
  source and "blindly" produces a program that does the same thing.

  The company who wrote the original program has no claim, so I'm told, to
  the new program because it was not a copy of the original.
  This may sound like splitting hairs, but I recall reading of occaisons
  where this method has been used sucessfully and legally.

  Of course I am not a legal expert and may have dreamed the whole thing up,
  but I think I could dig up the source of the information if anyone's 
  interested.

  Anyone out there with access to UUCICO care to do the first step?  If you
  did, and posted the result, you'd probably have an equivalent program 
  within a month.

Steve
ucbvax!schoet

  The opinions above are mine alone, and are not posted on behalf of anybody.