Subject:
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Re: Lego Good, SONY BAD!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Fri, 2 Nov 2001 22:10:25 GMT
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Original-From:
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Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail*spamless*.net>
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Reply-To:
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sjbaker1@airmail.net#StopSpammers#
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Viewed:
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579 times
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spitz wrote:
>
> An article in the LA times mentions the Lego company stance on Mindstorms fan
> software development, as a counterpoint to the Sony stance. Sony is cracking
> down on fans' who modify or make competing development environments for its
> robotic dog, Aibo. As we all know, Lego has taken the opposite view,
> encouraging fans to make their own Mindstorms environments (as long as they
> follow the fair play guidelines).
>
> Story at:
> http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000086726nov01.story
The trouble here is that the guy didn't just use the Aibo code to *understand*
how it worked...then going on to write entirely new software based on that
understanding...instead he modified one of Sony's existing programs and posted
the result on his web site.
Clearly that's not fair - and a clear breach of Sony's copyrights.
People who have worked with the Lego firmware have figured out how it works
and then either simply documented it (allowing things like NQC to *USE* the
Lego firmware without modifying it) - or to completely rewrite it (I presume
LegOS doesn't use any of the original Lego Firmware to do what it does).
If the Aibo guy had written entirely new firmware for Aibo, I suspect that
Sony would have left him alone.
> "Last week, Sony executives sent a letter to the operator of a Web site, http://
> www.aibohack.com, alleging that much of the site's contents-programs and
> software tools that can modify the Aibo's behavior--was created and distributed
> in ways that violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
Well, they violate the *ORIGINAL* Copyright Act - the DMCA is *EVIL* but I don't
think that's the real problem here.
> "MindStorms, as the kit is called, offers users the ability to add motors and an
> onboard computer to control the creation's behavior. Almost as soon as the toy
> was introduced, enthusiasts rewrote the software to allow for more complex
> operation. After much consideration, Lego decided to endorse such hacking,
> provided that nobody turns their software into a commercial product and that
> Lego trademarks aren't used."
The key word here is "rewrote".
----------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------------
Mail : <sjbaker1@airmail.net> WorkMail: <sjbaker@link.com>
URLs : http://www.sjbaker.org
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Lego Good, SONY BAD!
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| An article in the LA times mentions the Lego company stance on Mindstorms fan software development, as a counterpoint to the Sony stance. Sony is cracking down on fans' who modify or make competing development environments for its robotic dog, Aibo. (...) (23 years ago, 2-Nov-01, to lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.robotics)
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