sane-project-website/old-archive/1998-05/0222.html

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<title>sane-devel: Re: Non Disclosure Agreements</title>
<h1>Re: Non Disclosure Agreements</h1>
<a href="mailto:becka@rz.uni-duesseldorf.de"><i>becka@rz.uni-duesseldorf.de</i></a><br>
<i>Thu, 21 May 1998 23:48:41 +0200 (MET DST)</i>
<p>
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<i>&gt; 1) An acknowledgement.</i><br>
<i>&gt; 2) A promise to do something.</i><br>
<i>&gt; 3) A word document entitled "PIE's Scanner engine ScanAce series SCSI</i><br>
<i>&gt; Technical Reference Manual"</i><br>
<i>&gt; </i><br>
<i>&gt; Yesterday 2) turned into a "We've got the data but before we release it</i><br>
<i>&gt; could you sign this NDA" email.  Consequently I have a lot of</i><br>
<i>&gt; questions.</i><br>
<i>&gt; </i><br>
<i>&gt; The technical documentation came from a different source within the</i><br>
<i>&gt; company (I sent my letter to two separate support addresses).  My</i><br>
<i>&gt; questions are :-</i><br>
<i>&gt; </i><br>
<i>&gt; 1) If I get the NDA and don't agree with it, I don't sign it, what is</i><br>
<i>&gt; the position regarding the technical documentation ?</i><br>
<p>
As you received the info from another source before signing an NDA, this<br>
normally means, that you can use that material within the conditions<br>
the material itself, or any accompanying EMail sets.<br>
<p>
Other policy would probably not be considered valid.<br>
<p>
It would be like sending someone a packet with the label "free", and if<br>
he accepts it, sending a letter that requests payment.<br>
 <br>
<i>&gt; I'm not particularly worried about transmitting the stuff to anybody who</i><br>
<i>&gt; is interested, however SOMEBODY inside of PIE may lose their job because</i><br>
<i>&gt; they sent out the document before the parasite^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hlegal</i><br>
<i>&gt; advisors got their hands on it.</i><br>
<p>
Yeah. To keep good relationships, it would be better to try to convince <br>
them not to require the NDA. There are strong arguments on your side:<br>
<p>
1. SANE works on far over a dozen different architectures. You can't<br>
make binaries for all of them.<br>
<p>
2. SANE is a GPL package. It would be rather hard for you to make <br>
anything for it, if you may not release source.<br>
<p>
3. NDAing the protocol is not a good way to protect the interests <br>
of the company. If the protocol is a secret, there is something<br>
seriously wrong with the understanding of what makes a scanner a<br>
good scanner. This is determined by the mechanics, the electronics<br>
and maybe the software. But not by the protocol.<br>
<p>
If you need an example to explain that to some salesperson/lawyer:<br>
<p>
What makes e.g. a car a good one might be the quality of the engine,<br>
the front-panels, etc, but _not_ the _color_ of the _wires_ connecting<br>
them.<br>
<p>
<i>&gt; 3) If there is a heavy ND clause, does Sane need to have the source</i><br>
<i>&gt; code.</i><br>
<p>
In principle yes. However you can write a backend without using an <br>
existing one. This should be free from GPL restrictions.<br>
<p>
The fact, that a GPL program would load and execute a non-GPL<br>
library very probably can't pose a problem.<br>
 <br>
<i>&gt; 4) Other scanners are supported and these must have either been reverse</i><br>
<i>&gt; engineered or the manufacturers have had some form of input, what is the</i><br>
<i>&gt; general method used when say dealing with Umax or HP, do they ask for</i><br>
<i>&gt; NDA's ?</i><br>
<p>
HP was AFAIK quite nice and sent docs freely. Most others were either<br>
reverse engineered, or someone from the more technical branch of the<br>
company came up with info.<br>
<p>
CU, Andy<br>
<p>
<pre>
-- 
= Andreas Beck                    |  Email :  &lt;<a href="mailto:andreas.beck@ggi-project.org">andreas.beck@ggi-project.org</a>&gt; =
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<pre>
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<ul>
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<li> <b>Next message:</b> <a href="0223.html">Bjoern A. Zeeb: "NT frontend"</a>
<li> <b>Previous message:</b> <a href="0221.html">Michael D. Crawford: "Re: Non Disclosure Agreements"</a>
<li> <b>In reply to:</b> <a href="0218.html">Dave Restall - System Administrator: "Non Disclosure Agreements"</a>
<!-- nextthread="start" -->
<li> <b>Next in thread:</b> <a href="0224.html">David Mosberger-Tang: "Re: Non Disclosure Agreements"</a>
<li> <b>Reply:</b> <a href="0224.html">David Mosberger-Tang: "Re: Non Disclosure Agreements"</a>
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