mjranum@osiris.UUCP (03/21/87)
Understandably I am getting flamed to bits over my earlier posting.
(to some of you out there, please at least TRY to be polite!) I obviously
was not clear enough. I was not saying that uucp should be public-domain,
or posted to the net. I was just surprised that everything in 99% of the
source I've ever seen often has more copyright lines than actual code, and
here uucp has none. There has been a *lot* of discussion of copyrights on
the net, and I was hoping that someone more knowledgeable than myself might
be able to (showing kindness to my stupidity) shed some light on copyright law.
It was pointed out to me that the licensing agreement covers the
entire distribution as trade secrets, but I don't see how that works when
public domain source is included with proprietary source (for example Mike
Muus' "ping" program).
Considering the amazingly touchy attitude lots of people on the net
have shown towards having carefully worded copyright notices in EVERYTHING,
I was (and still am) suprised there is nothing in uucp.
--mjr();
--
"Known to the Comanche as 'nffsnpr'"
? - decuac -- osiris!mjranum
\__ gouldsd!mjranumtp@ndmce.UUCP (03/24/87)
In article <1019@osiris.UUCP> mjranum@osiris.UUCP (Marcus Ranum) writes: > It was pointed out to me that the licensing agreement covers the >entire distribution as trade secrets, but I don't see how that works when >public domain source is included with proprietary source (for example Mike >Muus' "ping" program). The point is, the distribution can be licensed, even if the source code in it is not licensed, copyrighted, or otherwise restricted. A license is basically a contract that says "We'll give you X under these conditions". It doesn't matter what the conditions are, if you sign the contract (license), you are bound by the terms, even if the things they won't let you do are otherwise perfectly legal. It sounds screwey, but it really works this way. I tried to get the public domain version of Ingress from Berkeley, mostly just because I wanted to look at it. There used to be an office at Berkeley that distributed this to anyone who wanted it, as it is completely public domain with no licensed source. However, the office that distributed it is closed now. The only way Berkeley gives it out is as part of BSD. The entire BSD distribution is licensed, even the public domain stuff. Berkeley won't send you anything unless you go through all the proper procedures to get a BSD tape, (including the $48,000 (or whatever) source license from AT&T). You can't get it from a BSD customer, as the entire distribution is licensed. They won't write a letter allowing a customer to copy it, even though it is PD (as far as I can tell, this last position is because they are basically unfriendly, the rest I can understand). However, anyone who got Ingress from the office that used to distribute it PD, still can distribute it freely. (In case anyone really wants to know, in the case of Ingress, one such source is Usenix.) BTW, my claim that Ingress is completely public domain is a result of several phone conversations with people at Berkeley whose names I have since forgotten, but were involved with the distribution of Ingress and/or BSD. If you don't believe it, tell Berkeley, not me. -- Terry Poot, Nathan D. Maier Consulting Engineers, (214)739-4741 8800 N. Central Expressway, Suite 300, Dallas, Tx 75231, USA UUCP: { seismo | cbosgd | ihnp4 | sun!convex | allegra!convex }!ndmce!tp ARPA: ndmce!tp@seismo.css.gov CSNET: ndmce!tp@smu