ia4@CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Imran Anwar) (08/27/89)
PLACING A COPY OF COMMAND.COM ON S/WARE FOR SALE: LEGAL? A friend of mine is developing a program for the IBM PC line but for it to be functional it has to have an uncorrupted Command.COM on the same disk. Does he need IBM's permission to do this or pay royalties or what? If so, where to go for details?
g-tookey@rocky.cs.wisc.edu. (Richard Schaut) (08/27/89)
In article <8908262022.AA00807@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu> ia4@CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Imran Anwar) writes: | | PLACING A COPY OF COMMAND.COM ON S/WARE FOR SALE: LEGAL? | |A friend of mine is developing a program for the IBM PC line but for it |to be functional it has to have an uncorrupted Command.COM on the same |disk. | |Does he need IBM's permission to do this or pay royalties or what? COMMAND.COM is a licensed part of DOS, and, therefore, cannot be distributed outside of the licensing agreement. However, I question your friend's desire to distribute COMMAND.COM. It's quite impracticle, because COMMAND.COM checks for the version of DOS it's running on. You'd not only have to distribute COMMAND.COM but also the two hidden files IBMBIOS.SYS and IBMDOS.SYS. What's wrong with giving clear instructions on how to create a working disk using the version of DOS that the end user has? Rick Please send e-mail to: schaut@madnix.UUCP ArpaNet: madnix!schaut@cs.wisc.edu UseNet: ...uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!schaut {decvax!att}! I am posting this through a friend's account. His consent to my use of his account in no way implies his consent to responsibility for the opinions expressed herein.
cpcahil@virtech.UUCP (Conor P. Cahill) (08/27/89)
In article <8908262022.AA00807@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu>, ia4@CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Imran Anwar) writes: > > PLACING A COPY OF COMMAND.COM ON S/WARE FOR SALE: LEGAL? no way jose. > > A friend of mine is developing a program for the IBM PC line but for it > to be functional it has to have an uncorrupted Command.COM on the same > disk. Tell him to write a small installation program that can copy command.com from the user's disk to his disk (or to install his program onto thier disk.) > > Does he need IBM's permission to do this or pay royalties or what? > If he really wants to he probably could, but would it be worth it? Also he would have to ensure that it would work with whatever version of MS-DOS was running. -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Conor P. Cahill uunet!virtech!cpcahil 703-430-9247 ! | Virtual Technologies Inc., P. O. Box 876, Sterling, VA 22170 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
len@netsys.Netsys.COM (Len Rose) (08/27/89)
Hmm, I am wondering why you just can't have an installation program that installs command.com onto their floppy? Len
hollen@eta.megatek.uucp (Dion Hollenbeck) (08/28/89)
From article <8908262022.AA00807@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu>, by ia4@CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Imran Anwar): > > PLACING A COPY OF COMMAND.COM ON S/WARE FOR SALE: LEGAL? > > A friend of mine is developing a program for the IBM PC line but for it > to be functional it has to have an uncorrupted Command.COM on the same > disk. I used to work for a software development company which required that one of the disks be bootable. The solution we used was as follows, since it is strictly ILLEGAL to distribute any part of PC-DOS or MS-DOS without licensing. The trick is to let the user apply HIS copy of DOS, but you must leave space for it on the disk. Determine the version of PC/MS-DOS which is the BIGGEST currently being marketed or previously marketed. Format a floppy with that system, making it bootable. Use debug to read in the directory and patch the entries for IBMBIO.SYS anmmd IBMDOS.COM to make them unhidden and unsystem. Write the directory back again. Use debug to read each of the files in, examine the CX register to see file length and use the fill command with zeroes to wipe out the contents of the file. Write the file back to the disk again. Do this for each of the three files. Again read in the directory, re-hide and re-system the two files (not COMMAND.COM). Put the FORMAT command on this disk. This is now your master "system" disk. When you go to produce your software, use your fake master system disk and format /s another floppy disk. It will transfer the "operating system" to the newly formatted disk. Now copy your software onto the newly formatted disk. Back to your trusty debug. Read in the directory sectors, patch the first character of the three system file names to be 0xE5 and write the directory sectors back again. What you have created is a disk with space for the operating system on the disk. The user can use the SYS command to place his copy of DOS on it. You cannot merely patch the directory entry to delete the three files, you must also destroy THE CONTENTS or you are in essence distributing DOS without license. Our legal department checked this out very thoroughly and this is why we had to go to these lengths. Dion Hollenbeck (619) 455-5590 x2814 Megatek Corporation, 9645 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA 92121 uunet!megatek!hollen or hollen@megatek.uucp
leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) (08/29/89)
ia4@CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Imran Anwar) writes:
<A friend of mine is developing a program for the IBM PC line but for it
<to be functional it has to have an uncorrupted Command.COM on the same
<disk.
Your friend is going to have to have the *user* place a copy of
COMMAND.COM on the disk. Not because of legal problems, but because
it won't work unless the disk has the *same version* of command.com
on it that the system is running.
I've tracked several instances of bizarre behavior on machines to
people running disk with a different version of command.com than the
one the machine was booted with!
--
Leonard Erickson ...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Shortfisher@sc2a.unige.ch (Markus Fischer) (09/06/89)
In article <712@megatek.UUCP>, hollen@eta.megatek.uucp (Dion Hollenbeck) writes: >> >> PLACING A COPY OF COMMAND.COM ON S/WARE FOR SALE: LEGAL? >> >> A friend of mine is developing a program for the IBM PC line but for it >> to be functional it has to have an uncorrupted Command.COM on the same >> disk. > > I used to work for a software development company which required that > one of the disks be bootable. The solution we used was as follows, > since it is strictly ILLEGAL to distribute any part of PC-DOS or MS-DOS > without licensing. > > The trick is to let the user apply HIS copy of DOS, but you must leave > space for it on the disk. > > [long and complicated procedure involving `debug' and patches to the > directory] If you only need `command.com', have the user or an installation batch copy the user's copy on the disk... And have him boot on his system diskette (if he boots on C:, you should use the `comspec' variable...) If you need to transfer the system, simply create two files on you empty disquette, with a total lenth equal to the two system files (take 60000kb), copy your own files, and delete the two dummies. Et voila ! `Sys' works ! (i.e., have the installation batch run a `sys' from the system disk[ette].) You see, the only thing you need is to have the two first directory entries empty, and enough contiguous space starting with the first cluster... BTW: `format' has a /B switch, that installs these two dummy files (with system and hidden attributes, but not read-only!). After that you don't even need to delete them! You could check if that's legal for distribution? Hope this helps Markus Fischer, Geneva