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  • From: Brian Bruns <camber AT ais.org>
  • To: TDS Development Group <freetds AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: tabular data stream protocol spec?
  • Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 16:04:47 -0400 (EDT)



My concern in a nutshell is this. The orginal EULA that the document was
provided on has some language explicitly not permiting "disclosure". In
essence the ELUA is a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) similar to those used
by hardware manufacturers. Developers under linux/bsd/whatever are not
allowed to read a specification under NDA and develop a driver for which
source will be available. Implementing knowledge in the spec and
releasing source code is "disclosure". Interestingly enough, one may
produce a binary of said driver and party B may decompile it and
reimplement one in source, but no one said the law has to make sense!

Anyway, until the legal ramifications are worked out, I will not
personally be looking at the spec. jkl, does this mean you are back from
vacation?

Brian

On Sat, 3 Aug 2002, James K. Lowden wrote:

> > can anyone give me a hint where I can find the "Tabular Data Stream"
> > protocol specs?
> >
> > I've access to the universal MSDN subscription, but to no avail.
> > Probably I'm looking in the wrong place?
>
> Twan,
>
> http://www.sybase.com/content/1013412/tds34.pdf
>
> As Brian said, Microsoft does not publish their specification. As a
> matter of fact, they barely admit the existence of the protocol at all.
>
> Unfortunately, if you go to Sybase's site, no amount of searching will
> reveal the above document. At http://www.sybase.com/developer you can ask
> for OpenClient downloads, which will reveal a broken link:
> http://crm.sybase.com/sybase/www/ESD/tds_spec_download.jsp (crm.sybase.com
> doesn't listen to port 80 even).
>
> Nevertheless, the document is on the web. Its location may be obscure,
> but from a legal point of view it's no different from any other
> copyrighted work on the www.
>
> Brian, I found in google's cached pages the EULA you remember. Very
> unwelcoming document. But the body of the document contains no such
> language, leading me to two conclusions:
>
> 1. It's OK to add the link to our site. If we want to be super hyperlink
> hypercautious, we could send mail to their webmaster indicating we've done
> so.
>
> 2. It's OK to read it. Nothing in copyright law prevents you from
> reading
> something and employing your knowledge to any end.
>
> Copying the document to our server might constitute "publishing" it,
> though.
>
> Regards,
>
> --jkl
>





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