4 ms·

Maybe it is some _copyrighted_ beacon? I've read somewhere that Oracle have made some verse a part of some network API of theirs to be able to copyright it.

by yaris 6y ago

mschuster91 6y ago
Something in nature like "DontstealOSX" or whatever that SMBIOS string in Mac machines is called? In any case, doing this to an API is just plain nasty... but I believe at least under European law it's still getting trumped by the right to interoperability and reverse engineering.
- yardie 6y ago
  You mean "Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext." And the Hackintosh equivalent was dsmos.kext. Which would "inject" the required system calls to trick OSX into running on non Apple hardware.
  - twoodfin 6y ago
    Reminds me of the folklore.org[1] story about the Steve Jobs-requested, Susan Kare-designed bitmap embedded in the original Macintosh ROM to catch cloners. [1] https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Stolen_From_Apple.txt https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...
- ev1 6y ago
  There's a "ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)applecomputerinc" too.
ezoe 6y ago
That strategy doesn't work in my country as the law clearly stated mere protocol is not copyrightable. Another interesting case was, Nintendo released a floppy disk with their logo relief and use its presence for DRM purpose. When third party released a compatible floppy disk, Nintendo sued them for trademark violation. Nintendo lost.
- 0xfaded 6y ago
  The gameboy hashes the bitmap nintendo logo displayed by licensed cartridges at boot and compares it to a saved value.
teraflop 6y ago
The original LEGO Mindstorms had a handshaking mechanism like this. The firmware for the RCX brick was stored in battery-backed RAM, so you had to re-upload it via infrared whenever you changed the batteries. But the ROM bootloader would only accept a firmware image if it contained the string: > "Do you byte, when I knock?" After uploading, the host computer would send an "unlock request" with the string "LEGO®", at which point the RCX would return the other half of the rhyme: > "Just a bit off the block!" I assume the only reason for jumping through these hoops was to have a legal excuse to discourage other companies from making interoperable products. I have no idea whether this strategy would have actually held up in court; in any case, there were plenty of homebrew tools that just embedded the magic strings anyway.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
  Nintendo did this with the GameBoy boot logo. It doesn't stand up in court.
  - brokenmachine 6y ago
    Any links about the court case? I tried googling but it only came up with technical info about how it works.

Maybe it is some _copyrighted_ beacon? I've read somewhere that Oracle have made some verse a part of some network API of theirs to be able to copyright it.

by yaris 6y ago

Maybe it is some _copyrighted_ beacon? I've read somewhere that Oracle have made some verse a part of some network API of theirs to be able to copyright it.

mschuster91 6y ago

Something in nature like "DontstealOSX" or whatever that SMBIOS string in Mac machines is called? In any case, doing this to an API is just plain nasty... but I believe at least under European law it's still getting trumped by the right to interoperability and reverse engineering.

yardie 6y ago
You mean "Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext." And the Hackintosh equivalent was dsmos.kext. Which would "inject" the required system calls to trick OSX into running on non Apple hardware.
- twoodfin 6y ago
  Reminds me of the folklore.org[1] story about the Steve Jobs-requested, Susan Kare-designed bitmap embedded in the original Macintosh ROM to catch cloners. [1] https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Stolen_From_Apple.txt https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...
ev1 6y ago
There's a "ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)applecomputerinc" too.

ezoe 6y ago

That strategy doesn't work in my country as the law clearly stated mere protocol is not copyrightable. Another interesting case was, Nintendo released a floppy disk with their logo relief and use its presence for DRM purpose. When third party released a compatible floppy disk, Nintendo sued them for trademark violation. Nintendo lost.

0xfaded 6y ago
The gameboy hashes the bitmap nintendo logo displayed by licensed cartridges at boot and compares it to a saved value.

teraflop 6y ago

The original LEGO Mindstorms had a handshaking mechanism like this. The firmware for the RCX brick was stored in battery-backed RAM, so you had to re-upload it via infrared whenever you changed the batteries. But the ROM bootloader would only accept a firmware image if it contained the string: > "Do you byte, when I knock?" After uploading, the host computer would send an "unlock request" with the string "LEGO®", at which point the RCX would return the other half of the rhyme: > "Just a bit off the block!" I assume the only reason for jumping through these hoops was to have a legal excuse to discourage other companies from making interoperable products. I have no idea whether this strategy would have actually held up in court; in any case, there were plenty of homebrew tools that just embedded the magic strings anyway.

kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
Nintendo did this with the GameBoy boot logo. It doesn't stand up in court.
- brokenmachine 6y ago
  Any links about the court case? I tried googling but it only came up with technical info about how it works.