Xilinx Legal
in [FPGA]
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From: Kolja Sulimma on 1 Feb 2006 09:42 David Brown schrieb: > If Xilinx' tools also have such verbatim copying through to the > generated bitstreams, and they do not have such stated exceptions, then > they are in a position (in my interpretation - IANAL) to claim joint > copyright ownership of the bitstream. In germany falsely claiming copyright ownership is a crime that can be punished by 5 years in prison, so Xilinx should make sure it only claims joint ownership if there are such parts in the bitstream. Think about connecting input to output in FPGA editor with a wire. Kolja Sulimma
From: cs_posting on 1 Feb 2006 10:29
Kolja Sulimma wrote: > In germany falsely claiming copyright ownership is a crime that can be > punished by 5 years in prison, so Xilinx should make sure it only claims > joint ownership if there are such parts in the bitstream. Hmm, and what about falsely accusing someone of a crime? > Think about connecting input to output in FPGA editor with a wire. May very well instantiate a non-trivial "straight through" bit pattern, or more likely several necessary patterns - really you have to configure two fairly complex IOB's, and a bunch of routing resources. And I wouldn't be suprised if there's some pattern of bits you need to put in unused areas of the chip to optimally idle them. Also, even if there are no verbatim bits, think about this. Say instead of running the software on your computer, you had to send your HDL to Xilinx and they sent you back a bitstream. Clearly they can claim some ownership rights to that, unless they signed away the rights under a work-for-hire type of contract. It would appear that their tools license is basically implying that this is what is going on, only as a convenience for fast turnaround they are letting you borrow the software to run on your computer. From the software industry perpsective, you can't purchase software the way you can purchase something like a drillpress - though it's unclear if all legal systems will uphold that view in all circumstances, especially things like software bundled with boxed retail eval kits. |