| From: | Rudi Chiarito |
| Date: | 6 Sep 2000 at 14:35:51 |
| Subject: | Re: Elate Ports & Legal Rubbish (was AMIOPEN: vpcc as a C++ compiler) |
On Tue, Sep 05, 2000 at 11:24:52AM +0100, Martin Baute wrote:
> >> Which reminds me, i asked a while ago about the NDA coverage of elates
> >> internals, if a port needs some elate spesific code (i.e not c cleanups
^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > No, our SDK (other than the actual GPL stuff) is proprietary.
> The program would now work on Elate / Ami, too. No source or library
> from the SDK has been included in the X archive; I only made calls to
> code only available to those owning a SDK.
> Is this still against the "spirit" of the SDK NDA?
No, it is legal, AFAICS.
I think the confusion arises from Matthew's usage of "Elate's internals"
and "Elate-specific code" close to each other. As long as your code uses
information publically available, whether you paid for it (i.e. from
the SDK) or not (the GPL ports), there are no problems.
If, on the other hand, your code uses undisclosed information, then
you're in trouble (wait for our Los Alamos Squad to come and get you). By
"undisclosed information" I refer to anything that has not been made
public: beta APIs/toolkits, release candidates, documentation
prereleases, exchanges with other parties who signed an NDA, etc.
I.e., anything that an ordinary person can't download from Amiga's
servers, that they can't read on this list or that they can't find on
shelves in shops.
Of course, if you're in doubt, you can ask Amiga for permission. For
example, if a feature is not documented, it might be an omission rather
than undisclosed information. In such case there should be no problem
getting an authorization that allows you to make public use of it.
Think of the Commodore days. Back when Release 2 was being developed, I
don't think you ever saw publically available sources using the new API,
until eventually C= disclosed the new OS.
Not being a lawyer, I can't claim the above is 100% correct, but it
should give you a good idea. When in doubt, ask.