Yes, you can use Griaule’s Fingerprint SDK without violating any software license agreement. An earlier public announcement on Microsoft website stated that users of any existing third-party SDKs or toolkits were in violation of the software license agreement with Microsoft and DigitalPersona. Griaule, with the help of EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), wrote to Microsoft to point out that people who merely buy the fingerprint reader are not parties to the Microsoft/Digital Persona license and can not violate it. Microsoft then changed the article on its website to the statement below. Therefore, the legal cloud has been lifted and customers may use Griaule’s Fingerprint SDK.
April, 2006—Griaule received a cease and desist letter from Microsoft suggesting that it might have improperly reverse engineered Microsoft fingerprint software and possibly be in violation.
January, 2008—Microsoft published knowledge base article stated that the users of third party SDKs like Griaule’s are in violation of Digital Persona/ Microsoft license agreement.
March 2008—Maxbio Biometrics Solution, an authorized Digital Persona reseller in Brazil emailed a Griaule customer warning about potential violation of the agreement.
March 2008—Griaule let EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) know about the whole situation and asked for help.
April 2008—EFF wrote a letter to Microsoft, Digital Persona and Maxbio explaining that Griaule didn’t violate the Microsoft Fingerprint software EULA nor do Griaule’s customers violate EULA when they use Griaule software.
July 2008—Microsoft updated knowledge base “Information about support for Microsoft Fingerprint Reader” with following statement: Microsoft Fingerprint Reader does not provide a software development kit (SDK), has not published any APIs for developers to write programs for the Fingerprint Reader, and does not support any third-party SDKs.