Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!peter_alau@playstation.sony.com
From: Elliott Lee <tenchi@netmagic.net>
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english
Subject: Re: Net Yaroze User Agreement
Date: Fri, 08 May 1998 16:56:28 -0700
Organization: Cisco Systems
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James Chow wrote:
	[...]
> I've read the terms and conditions here, very closely.
> 
> But someone correct me if I'm wrong.
> Any Development Tools, that is binaries and docs may not be
> placed elsewhere.
> Member's binaries compiled using the Dev Tools may not be
> placed elsewhere.
> However, in 5iii, it makes no reference to the location of
> Member's PlayStation Format Source Code, so I presume that
> we may place them elsewhere provided they make no reference
> to any PSX call.
> 
> This should be quite easy to overcome.
> On our homepages, we can place a header file containing
> a set of #define function macros, which members may download
> and use in conjunction with code placed elsewhere.
> By doing this, the functionality of the code can still be
> quite clear, whilst not sacrificing the required security
> of the Development Tools.
	[...]
> Can anyone confirm that this is OK?
> 
> In any case, if anyone really wanted to pirate Yaroze's Dev Tools,
> they would have probably bought one anyway. Much simpler to
> disassemble with the whole dev kit and docs, without having to
> trudge through someone else's crap binary code.
> 
> jc

This conversation actually came up much earlier on the SCEA
server, but that data is probably now gone since we had to remove
old posts when we ran out of space.  :(

The basic idea is that Sony has proprietary info (not much unlike
you'd have at your company if you work in the software industry)
and that consists of anything that Sony has made.  That boils down
to the libraries and header files.  When you compile your program,
you probably won't have much proprietary code in there---it's
probably yours.  That is your work and your copyright, so you can
can distribute the whole/part of that.  However, once you link in
the Yaroze libs, then the resulting binary has both your and Sony's
work in it, and that means you can't distribute it.

The safest way to go about it is that for anything you create:

  -  If it's linked and ready to run, keep it on SCEE or SCEA in
     the provided authenticated directories or newsgroups.  Don't
     give it to people on the public newsgroups or public mailing
     lists.  Treat it as if it were your own company's intellectual
     property.

  -  If you are providing full source code, then you can leave it
     almost any place you want (don't quote me!) provided that it
     is wholly your own work.

This proprietary information distribution restriction may also
apply to anything gerenated with the provided Yaroze tools such
as AIFF2VAG, TIMUTIL, DXF2RSD, etc., though I haven't seen/heard
official word on that yet.

Considering this topic has come up more than once, maybe we should
get a members-only FAQ written up by SCEA/SCEE/SCEI employees and
post it on the web sites.

- e!
  tenchi@netmagic.net
  http://www.netmagic.net/~tenchi/yaroze/