From: Wolfgang Roeckelein <wolfgang@wi.WHU-Koblenz.de>
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 95 00:17:39 PDT
To: Bill Trost <trost@cloud.rain.com>
Subject: Re: copyrighting algorithms
Message-ID: <9507280717.AA07537@sirius.wi.WHU-Koblenz.de>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Hi,

From: Bill Trost <trost@cloud.rain.com>
>
>Wolfgang Roeckelein writes:
>    >I wasn't aware that you could copyright an algorithm.  Patent,
>    >yes, but not copyright.  Intellectual property meens secret,
>    >right?  Aren't there any precendence cases involving propriety
>    >schemes that are reverse engineered?
>
>    Game cartridges (I think sega was involved)
>
>You might be referring to Nintendo vs. Galoob, which was used as a
>sample case in an January 1994 article in the Communications of the
>ACM titled "Copyright's Fair use Doctrine and Digital Data".  The
>article states

No, I was referring to a case, where a third party game cartridges manufacturer  
reverse engineered the specifications of the game cartridges slot for producing  
his own cartridges for this game.

Unfortunatly, I have lost the reference and the names of the companies, but  
this is the main case cited when it comes to reverse engineering propriety  
schemes. Maybe I can dig this out, or another member of the list has details  
available.

  Wolfgang
---
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Wolfgang Roeckelein	Fax:	+49 261 6509 179
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