Johan Henriksson wrote:

> in short, I think we are legally safe if we just monitor the connection
> (IANAL), we are politically safe since the companies will earn tons of
> badwill if they start suing customers, and we can be provably legally
> safe through standard reverse engineering practices.

Back when Molecular Dynamics held the patent on using a computer to 
manipulate confocal datasets, they informed anyone (including, as I 
understand it, Wayne Rasband of NIH-Image and ImageJ) who wrote programs 
that manipulated confocal datasets that they were infringing their 
patent.  And they HAD to do so, in order to show to the courts that they 
were not giving away their rights.

I'm not sure of the details of copyright vs. patent law, but if 
Olympus's lawyers think you're infringing, I would expect them to say so.

Martin

-- 
Martin Wessendorf, PhD 	   (612) 626 0145 (office)
Associate Professor	      (612) 624 2991 (lab)	
Dept Neuroscience 	      (612) 624 8118 (FAX)
Univ Minnesota	        e-mail: martinw(at)umn.edu