[linux-audio-user] Companies Refusing to Release/Permit Linux Drivers

[Dana Olson]

On 2/25/06, Lee Revell <rlrevell at joe-job.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-02-25 at 18:54 -0600, Reuben Martin wrote:
> > Don't be so hard on Plextor (or RME for that matter)  Both have been
> > quite open providing developer kits and specs for OSS devs for many of
> > their products. Just because they may choose not to for some of their
> > products doesn't make them evil. It's their product and they can do
> > what they want with it. If you don't like it, buy something else.
> >
>
> The plextor situation is pretty bad - certain SCSI commands are
> encrypted to make reverse engineering them a DMCA violation.  If this is
> the future of hardware we are f**ked - it won't be possible to run Linux
> on a PC in 5 years.  It's VERY important to let Plextor know that they
> will be punished in the marketplace for this type of behavior.
>
> Lee


According to the guys behind Pxtools, the SCSI commands are cleartext.
So it's even worse than that, in my opinion. There is no possible way
that this should stand in court, but they're threatening anyhow...

For reference: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=127340&

Dana