Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!haven!umbc3!motteler
From: motteler@umbc3.UMBC.EDU (Howard E. Motteler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: 3b1 dissassembler patches
Keywords: dissassembler
Message-ID: <1642@umbc3.UMBC.EDU>
Date: 5 Feb 89 00:14:08 GMT
References: <1636@umbc3.UMBC.EDU> <434@polyof.UUCP>
Reply-To: motteler@umbc3.umbc.edu.UMBC.EDU (Howard E. Motteler)
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Lines: 39

In article <434@polyof.UUCP> john@polyof.UUCP ( John Buck ) writes:
>In article <1636@umbc3.UMBC.EDU>, alex@umbc3.UMBC.EDU (Alex S. Crain) writes:
>> 
>> 	I'm sending the latest patches for the 3b1 dissassembler to 
>> comp.sources.misc...
>> 	do automatic lookup of shared library addresses, so that you can 
>> dissassemble stipped files.
>> 	make "dis -lc(malloc.o)" work.
>> 	There is also a -k flag, that will attempt to resolve varoius kernal
>> addresses, includeing the u structure. unfortunely there are still problems
>> dealing with relocatable symbols, so this is of dubious value.
>> Alex Crain
>> Systems Programmer			alex@umbc3.umbc.edu
>> Univ Md Baltimore County		nerwin!alex@umbc3.umbc.edu (NEW DOMAIN)
>
>Distributing (or using) such a utility in the manner illustrated above
>sounds like a blatant violation of your UNIX PC license:
>
> [etc. etc. ... ]

This is utter nonsense.  You can do whatever you want with your
binaries, dissassemble, patch, reassemble, explore, munge, etc., *as
long as you don't re-distribute the results*.

Redistributing the binaries is obviously illegal; distributing a
straight dissassembly, or significant portions of a dissassembly, is
also.  However, distributing or discussing "principles of operations,"
techniques, etc., that you may discover by examining binaries is a
somewhat grey area.  Companies might not like you to do this, but
this is no longer any sort of copyright violation.

If a company managed to cover some algorithm as a "trade secret"
they might be able to make trouble if you disclosed it.

If the algorithm is patented, it's on file anyway, and you can
"disclose" it all you want.  You just can't *use* it in something you
are distributing.

Howard Motteler