3 ms·

It seems like a grey area. Especially given that the driver is a mash-up of sample code from a third-party hardware SDK and a Microsoft book, would Kodak/Pakon

It seems like a grey area. Especially given that the driver is a mash-up of sample code from a third-party hardware SDK and a Microsoft book, would Kodak/Pakon really care? I would think the only part of the software that still might retain trade secrets would be the color management code, and that's not in the driver.

dehrmann 4y ago
Maybe there's a way to distribute dissembler hints and patches where you need the original driver files to get the source code. I assume the MS code has a reasonable license since it was published as sample code > trade secrets would be the color management code Are trade secrets even protected? If there's a patent, yes, but that's expired. The implementation is protected by copyright, but the know-how isn't.
- ktkaufman 4y ago
  Kodak sold a lot of their patents to other companies as a result, IIRC, of their bankruptcy. I'd have to look at the patents for this particular system again, because I can't remember if they were ever reassigned or if they were simply allowed to expire.
  - dehrmann 4y ago
    I don't think reassignment changes the duration of the patent. Looks like the early versions of the devices came out in 2004, so it's getting really close to when they'd expire. IANAL, but my concern would be distributing either the original drivers or 64-bit drivers, but in practice, no one is going to care. It's not worth an hour of a lawyer's time to send a cease and desist letter for distributing driver source for an 18-year-old device.
- sethkau 4y ago
  Trade secrets may not be protected by patents (if expired), but protection of them is a potential motivation for copyright litigation.
- mdaniel 4y ago
  > Maybe there's a way to distribute dissembler hints Tavis recently posted about using STABS for that <https://lock.cmpxchg8b.com/symbols.html https://lock.cmpxchg8b.com/symbols.html> and has existing code that seems relevant: https://github.com/taviso/wpunix/blob/main/debug/idb2stabs.py https://github.com/taviso/wpunix/blob/main/debug/idb2stabs.p... I've never used Ghidra in anger to know if it would work for their platform, nor whether the Ghidra database can be shipped separate from the binary

dehrmann 4y ago

Maybe there's a way to distribute dissembler hints and patches where you need the original driver files to get the source code. I assume the MS code has a reasonable license since it was published as sample code > trade secrets would be the color management code Are trade secrets even protected? If there's a patent, yes, but that's expired. The implementation is protected by copyright, but the know-how isn't.

ktkaufman 4y ago
Kodak sold a lot of their patents to other companies as a result, IIRC, of their bankruptcy. I'd have to look at the patents for this particular system again, because I can't remember if they were ever reassigned or if they were simply allowed to expire.
- dehrmann 4y ago
  I don't think reassignment changes the duration of the patent. Looks like the early versions of the devices came out in 2004, so it's getting really close to when they'd expire. IANAL, but my concern would be distributing either the original drivers or 64-bit drivers, but in practice, no one is going to care. It's not worth an hour of a lawyer's time to send a cease and desist letter for distributing driver source for an 18-year-old device.
sethkau 4y ago
Trade secrets may not be protected by patents (if expired), but protection of them is a potential motivation for copyright litigation.
mdaniel 4y ago
> Maybe there's a way to distribute dissembler hints Tavis recently posted about using STABS for that <https://lock.cmpxchg8b.com/symbols.html https://lock.cmpxchg8b.com/symbols.html> and has existing code that seems relevant: https://github.com/taviso/wpunix/blob/main/debug/idb2stabs.py https://github.com/taviso/wpunix/blob/main/debug/idb2stabs.p... I've never used Ghidra in anger to know if it would work for their platform, nor whether the Ghidra database can be shipped separate from the binary