Re: Document Fingerprinting
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Will French:
Sounds like a disaster to me, unless it can be done automatically, by a proven-correct program. I used to use commercial compilers that (at least claimed to) put their "stamp" on the assembly code they generated, so they could sue if you released a product without having a license for the compiler. Bugs are bad enough as it is; we don't need extra ones that only show up in some copies!
I seem to recall a lawsuit where somebody like Tandy was suing somebody else, claiming they copied the computer's rom code. As proof they pulled out the competitors computer, pressed a certain key combination, and the Tandy copyright flashed up on the screen. As I also recall, they LOST the suit believe it or not... Anybody heard of this? Cerca 1988-1991 I believe. Sure shows what a slick lawyer can get you out of... Don -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQB1AwUBMFO+acLa+QKZS485AQFNCQL+L/HtUtC//QAi8II8Ktf7bZjSt3YRdmBf /zNieoiM5buZDAlC/GHR4bw4RJl5qWbY33r8QB4akR4b108Fvf0BxkUCgPmdI95f f+MHqxcRLfwgcoj0XiwxMrR9pQyJEv4B =8myc -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- <don@cs.byu.edu> fRee cRyPTo! jOin the hUnt or BE tHe PrEY PGP key - http://bert.cs.byu.edu/~don or PubKey servers (0x994b8f39) June 7&14, 1995: 1st amendment repealed. Death threats ALWAYS pgp signed * This user insured by the Smith, Wesson, & Zimmermann insurance company *
In servalan.mailinglist.cypherpunks you write:
I seem to recall a lawsuit where somebody like Tandy was suing somebody else, claiming they copied the computer's rom code.
As proof they pulled out the competitors computer, pressed a certain key combination, and the Tandy copyright flashed up on the screen. As I also recall, they LOST the suit believe it or not...
Dunno about that one, but there was one where Tandy/Radio Shack was being sued by the guy (Randy Cook) who originally wrote TRSDOS 2.1, claiming RS owed him royalties (which they weren't paying) because the current shipping TRSDOS for the Mod I at the time (v2.3) still had Randy's code. RS claimed otherwise. Randy Cook showed that if you held down two keys while booting TRSDOS 2.3, (either the '2' and '4' keys, or '2' and '6', I forget which), instead of going into the OS the machine would show a nice copyright screen, including "Copyright (C) Randy Cook". Oops. Tandy/RS had to pay up. (For those who still have a working Model I and a copy of TRSDOS from that era, the message is located in one of the sectors on Track 0; it's fairly easy to spot with a sector editor like SUPERZAP...) There was also the famous Apple/Franklin case, where Apple showed that Franklin's Apple II clones contained the original Apple II ROMs, right down to the copyright notice.
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don＠cs.byu.edu -
rmtodd＠servalan.servalan.com