[sane-devel] SANE protocol over USB as new USB scannerdevice class?

[François Revol]

> 2008/12/28 David Poole <dpoole at marvell.com>:
> >> Sounds like you would be the kind of manufacturer to publish 
> > > protocol
> >> specs, do you plan to do that, or have you done so?
> >
> > Me, personally, I'd love to be able to do that.  I've talked with 
> > my
> > managers and no go.  As a previous poster mentioned, our business 
> > types
> > consider our own protocol a "strategic advantage".
> >
> > I've been given permission to help SANE but I must have anything I 
> > do
> > reviewed by management first.
> 
> Are you managers aware that your protocol was already reverse 
> engineered?
> 
> http://www.sane-project.org/lists/sane-backends-cvs.html#S-HPLJM1005
> 
> I have had this same discussion with three different OEM's lately, 
> and
> got three completely different responses: The first gave me full
> protocol specs and access to hardware without any legal formalities 
> at
> all. The second made me sign an NDA, but lets me talk to engineers,
> and lets me give away the code. The third gives me nothing.
> 
> The outcome for all three was the same. I wrote a sane backend for
> each, one was just a little harder because I had to reverse engineer
> the thing. There is, however, one crucial difference: when people ask
> me what brand of scanner to buy, I don't hesitate to suggest the two
> companies that were helpful, primarily because the backend performs
> better due to full specs, but also as a payback to them for sticking
> their collective necks out.

+1.
The growing market of geeks/FOSS fans can still make a difference.

> 
> Your situation with HP may cloud the IP waters here, but I would
> suggest to your managers that they are merely reducing the value of
> their advantage by locking it away.

Yes it's really despering.

François.