| From: | Stephen Webber |
| Date: | 24 Jul 2001 at 22:50:40 |
| Subject: | Re: Codecs, et. al. (Was: RealAudio) |
Hi Shawn
On 24-Jul-01, you wrote:
> on 7/24/01 1:36 AM, Paul Hill at paul@lagernet.clara.co.uk wrote:
>> It happens all the time. How do you think IBM clones first appeared?
> Actually, this is both right and wrong. IBM opened up their systems minus
> the BIOS, and MCA (which came later).
I don't think IBM so much as opened up their systems as built them from standard
off the shelf parts. The BIOS was cloned by the simple method of getting
somebody to disassemble the code, figure out exactly what it did and then write
an exact specification of how it worked. The spec was then given to another
coder who would write a new bios to the same spec as the original, thereby
making sure that by not exposing the second programmer to the code in the
original bios, he would not be tempted to reuse any of it and breach copyright
laws.
> - S
Regards
Dirksen's Three Laws of Politics:
1- Get elected.
2- Get Re-elected.
3- Don't get mad, get even.
- Sen. Everett Dirksen
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