Re: [Hamlib-developer] CI-V

[Kai A. <ka...@su...>]

Sorry for the delay, I have been on a biz trip for two days.

On Fri, Jan 26, Nate Bargmann wrote:

> > They don't have any problems with giving away copies of their CI-V
> > spec to developers but won't give us a written permission to use it
> > under GPL. The reason for that is the somehow strange attitude of
> > Icom Japan (they fear some legally exotic issues).
> 
> That's somewhat of a puzzling position to me.  I guess what you're
> refering to is documentation already developed by Icom in electronic
> form.  In that light their position is understandable.  If what they
> mean is that we can't create our own documentation based on their spec
> and release that under the GPL, then we have a problem.

No, the latter is not what I understood from my phone call. What they
won't give us is a written permission to use their documentation neither
as a printout nor electronically. But they provide us with printouts, if
we wan't to have those.

> > 	http://www.plicht.de/
> > 
> > where you'll find documentation of CI-V in english language.
> > 
> > Additionally my Icom contact told me about an article in the german
> > ham magazine "cq DL" 10/1990, pp. 634-638 which was about a reference
> > implementation of a rig control for an Icom receiver.
> 
> Clearly, then, they don't have a problem with independently produced
> documentation being made publicly available.

Right, that was my impression, too.


> So here is how I understand the situation.
> 
> Radio manufacturers publish the control command specifications and make
> them public.
> 
> The radio manuals and/or the computer control specification documents
> are likely copyrighted by the manufacturer.
> 
> We are allowed to create our own software under the GPL which uses these
> commands (typically hex values with arguments sent over a serial line).
> 
> We should be able to document these commands and how our software
> references them under the same license as our software, GPL.
> 
> We cannot use directly the copyrighted work of the manufacturer's
> documentation in a GPL document unless they specifically allow that work
> to be distributed under the GPL.

Agreed.

> The commands and their format are not themselves copyrighted (please
> correct me if I'm wrong), so our independent use of those commands and
> our independent documentation of those commands should be legal under
> "fair use."

Agreed, as we also could have re-engineered the command's protocol.

> Other radio control software has been released under the GPL and as far
> as I know, no one has been sued or threatened by the manufacturers as a
> result.

Agreed.

> We are not delving into the firmware of the radio, thus we don't violate
> any copyright the manufacturer holds to the code in the ROM.

Agreed. Additionally, every RX/TX comes with a printed manual that
describes the protocol of its CAT interface (at least this applies for all
my Yaesu radios).

> hamlib adds value to the existing base of radios out there as well as to
> those yet to be produced, so I don't foresee the manufacturers getting
> bent out of shape with this project or its documentation.
> 
> I think so long as we abide by the rules of "fair use" and give
> attribution when we quote some published reference manual, we should be
> fine with using the GPL.

I second this. Provide me with your postal address(es) and I will send 
you a copy of my CI-V.

Regards, Kai
-- 
Kai Altenfelder, SuSE GmbH, Schanzaeckerstr. 10, D-90443 Nuernberg
Tel.: +49-911-74053-0, Fax:  +49-911-74053-489,  EMail: ka...@su...
Ham: DL3LBA / DK0TUX / DN1TUX             PGP public key available