INF information for Dell 1920x1200 15.4" widescreen display needed.

[Mike A. Harris]

Rodd Clarkson wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-05-18 at 18:03 -0400, Jim Cornette wrote:
> 
>>>These files have a "Copyright by Microsoft" notice in each of them so I am not 
>>>sure about the legality of sharing them.  However, I would be surprised if 
>>>the folks at Red Hat don't have XP installed somewhere in their organization 
>>>so they should be able to find the same files I did.
>>
>>Run fast, don't look back and avoid the hardware. Replace with something 
>>better and more free.
> 
> 
> I'm a little confused by this comment.  So what, Microsoft has a
> copyright on some text based files in Windows.  Big woop.
> 
> I'm a GPL developer and last time I looked I had a copyright on the
> software I create.  In fact, I read a book the other day that was
> copyrighted.  (Maybe I should stop reading it).
> 
> In a nut shell (and IANAL) all copyright means is that you can't copy
> the material lock-stock-and-barrel (or portions of) without the
> permission of the author.  In my case, I grant that permission under the
> GPL.
> 
> While Microsoft may not have granted permission to copy the file (so it
> may mean that the Redhat engineers, or someone, might need to find a
> local copy of the file and read it there) there's nothing stopping you
> reading copyrighted materials and apply knowledge you learn from it -
> you just can't copy it.  This, as I understand it, is all the Redhat
> engineers want to do.  It's just like when you read a copyrighted
> technical manual to learn how the product works and then apply the
> knowledge.
> 
> Do you seriously think that because something is copyrighted it (or
> products it's related to) show be trashed and alternatives found?

If someone believes a specific .INF file, or any other file is
non-redistributable, or otherwise under copyright terms that would
make it potentially in violation of its license to provide it to
Red Hat via email or bugzilla, then they should not include it.

In the case of the .INF files for monitors, instead, you can download
the hwdata src.rpm, install it, and run inf2mondb.py on the file, and
paste the results into bugzilla, as this is what we do with the things.

In general, the hardware vendors own the .INF files supplied with
their drivers.  I contacted a number of them in the past, as well
as a very large 3 letter IHV who told me directly that if Red Hat
wanted to actually ship .INF files for various hardware and use it
in the OS, they themselves would contact all the relevant vendors
downline and ensure they would relicense any files that were not
already containing OSS friendly licenses.

So, right now, there is a useable workaround of manually running
inf2mondb.py if one is paranoid about the license of a trivial
text file, and in the long run, we can just say "Insert CDROM
from manufacturer of display, or browse to directory containing
monitor driver", and let the user download the stuff and use
it directly if we don't have one with the OS.

I'd *really* like to see FC5 be able to use .INFs directly, but
no promises...