I'm no lawyer by any means. I was wondering if there would be any legal ramifications (ie justifiable means of getting sued) by writing an Open Source PLC programming software package. Let's use AB SLCs and RSLogix 500 as an example (only because I'm familiar with them - freely replace with Vendor X). Specifically, AB doesn't release any specs for how programming software communicates to devices. This would undoubtedly require extensive work with a packet sniffer. I don't think you would need to reverse engineer RSLogix itself - only be familiar with what the program does.
So take this fantasy a bit farther. If such a mature project opens up on sourceforge, could AB shut them down or legitimately threaten with litigation?
This is merely a curiosity, prompted by this post.
So take this fantasy a bit farther. If such a mature project opens up on sourceforge, could AB shut them down or legitimately threaten with litigation?
This is merely a curiosity, prompted by this post.