Forum members Alexander Noe and Zeb both have received a cease and desist order from the parent company of Plextor, Shinano Kenshi. The company seems to have a problem with an utility that contains several similar features also available in Plextools Professional, software developed by Plextor and delivered exclusively with Plextor drives. The software called PXscan is able to do C1/C2, PIE, PIF, Jitter/Beta and TA testing on the Plextor PX716, PX712 and Premium drives and is released under GPL. Zeb had taken up the project and was porting PXscan to Linux, calling it PXlinux.

PXLinux was moved to Source Forge an open source project website. The project was closed as the website received a complaint. Now the Japanese parent company of Plextor is taking measures and claims that Alexander Noe has posted several times, in public, that he has reverse engineered cq. copied features of Plextools. Reverse engineering is generally considered illegal is most countries. Besides that, according to the company both have infringed several exclusive rights of Plextor as listed below.

The company also claims that comparing PXscan with Plextools and announcing that it is a true and full alternative for Plextools are unfair commercial practices because these comparisations were not made on an objective basis and harm the good name and fame of Plextor and its products. The company also claims that this in breach with the contract on which agree upon the moment of intallation of the companies protected work. Both developers are thinking about future steps to take. Read the thread with more information.

Source: Club CD Freaks