Re: Document Fingerprinting

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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

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<don@cs.byu.edu>           fRee cRyPTo!   jOin the hUnt or BE tHe PrEY
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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.