msw@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Matt S Wartell) (06/14/89)
What I would like to know what percentage royalties Clarinet Corp. will be paying to the authors of the news transport and news reading software. Larry Wall's excellent program "rn" carries a copyright: You may copy this program so long as you don't try to make money off of it... I'm sure the b-news and c-news people may feel the same way. Has Clarinet Corp. written news transport and news reading software from scratch? I doubt it. -- matt wartell, university of pittsburgh msw@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu
karl@dinosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) (06/14/89)
msw@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu writes:
What I would like to know what percentage royalties Clarinet Corp. will
be paying to the authors of the news transport and news reading software.
[RN copyright...]
You may copy this program so long as you don't try to make
money off of it...
Brad is not distributing rn itself; rather, he is only distributing
some sort of library which may be linked against it, or which may be
run standalone without rn. (Check for yourself; I just re-read the
comp.newprod articles very very carefully to be sure.)
QED: Brad is not making money off of rn itself; the users who read
clari.* may be using it, but they are *spending* money, and they are
free to use any news-reading interface they wish.
--Karlnagel@paris.ics.uci.edu (Mark Nagel) (06/14/89)
In article <KARL.89Jun13213653@dinosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu>, karl@dinosaur (Karl Kleinpaste) writes: | |Brad is not distributing rn itself; rather, he is only distributing |some sort of library which may be linked against it, or which may be |run standalone without rn. (Check for yourself; I just re-read the |comp.newprod articles very very carefully to be sure.) This still fails to address the other part of the question: is ClariNet in violation of Rick Adams B News copyright if it uses B News as the transport layer? If so, will he instead be providing his own version of the news software or will he be getting (or buying) special permission from Rick Adams to use B News? Mark Nagel @ UC Irvine, Department of Information and Computer Science +----------------------------------------+ ARPA: nagel@ics.uci.edu | Six plus six equals fourteen for large | UUCP: ucbvax!ucivax!nagel | values of six -- Dave Ackerman |
karl@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) (06/14/89)
nagel@paris.ics.uci.edu writes:
Is ClariNet in violation of Rick Adams B News copyright if it uses B News
as the transport layer? If so, will he instead be providing his own
version of the news software or will he be getting (or buying) special
permission from Rick Adams to use B News?
The clari.* hierarchy is apparently being based at UUNET, The Land of
Adams. I think that answers the question.
But two other things are important here:
[1] Brad hasn't said what *his* personal low-level transport is. He
may well be using C News, the copyright of which does not preclude
commercial use (I just checked).
[2] Anyone else's use of B 2.11 is not affected by whether they're
paying someone else for what they receive using it. This is to say,
it's just like rn - Brad doesn't distribute it himself, and doesn't
care what underlying transport any receiving site uses.
--Karlscott@zorch.UU.NET (Scott Hazen Mueller) (06/14/89)
In article <17762@paris.ics.uci.edu> nagel@paris.ics.uci.edu (Mark Nagel) writes:
<This still fails to address the other part of the question: is ClariNet in
<violation of Rick Adams B News copyright if it uses B News as the transport
<layer? [...] special permission from Rick Adams to use B News?
I *seriously* doubt that this is an issue... Brad clearly stated that ClariNet
would be available from UUNET, and I'm quite sure that if Rick had any problems
with B News being used by ClariNet he would have voiced them during the
negotiation for UUNET's services.
--
Scott Hazen Mueller scott@zorch.UU.NET
(408) 298-6213 (pyramid|tolerant|uunet)!zorch!scottgreg@lawnet.LawNet.Com (Gregory G. Petersen) (06/15/89)
In article <18430@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu> msw@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Matt S Wartell) writes: >What I would like to know what percentage royalties Clarinet Corp. will >be paying to the authors of the news transport and news reading software. > >Larry Wall's excellent program "rn" carries a copyright: > > You may copy this program so long as you don't try to make > money off of it... > >I'm sure the b-news and c-news people may feel the same way. > >Has Clarinet Corp. written news transport and news reading software from >scratch? I doubt it. Given the actual statements made in most of the news type software such as the one discussed above I would believe that the use of such software, either by a commercial network or the subscribers thereto, may be a basis for a claim of copyright infringement against either the commerical network or the user of the network, more likely the network since it makes the profit. Actually the remote site using the program is also involved in the use of the software in a profit making endeavor which may, in of itself, violate the alleged copyright (assuming the validity of the copyright itself - a complex question in and of itself). -- Gregory G. Petersen, Esq. greg@lawnet.LawNet.Com Petersen & Trott, A Law Corporation (714) 971-1441 770 The City Drive South, Suite 2100 Orange, California 92668
wnp@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Wolf Paul) (06/15/89)
In article <18430@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu> msw@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Matt S Wartell) writes: >What I would like to know what percentage royalties Clarinet Corp. will >be paying to the authors of the news transport and news reading software. > That's really none of your (or my) business, but is strictly between these authors and Clarinet. But ... > > You may copy this program so long as you don't try to make > money off of it... He isn't. Clarinet does not read news, it sends out news. Who knows which program Brad will use to post the material? Most likely something more batch-oriented than rn. What his SUBSCRIBERS use, on the other hand, to read Clarinet news, is not Brad's business, nor does he owe royalties on their use of rn, etc. >I'm sure the b-news and c-news people may feel the same way. > >Has Clarinet Corp. written news transport and news reading software from >scratch? I doubt it. Well, to the extent that they use B-News, which carries Rick Adams' copyright, since Clarinet has made arrangements with Uunet, which is run by Rick, I am sure he is aware of any issues of concern to him, and a flaming discussion on the net is really not appropriate. P.S. How come the "In Moderation" announcement, which proposes to take actual USENET news and decide which articles are "worthy" and which are "trash", and MAKE MONEY FROM THE REDISTRIBUTION of "worthy" articles, did not raise nearly as much furor as Brad's announcement of a totally separate network? It seems to me that much of this flamage is based on the person behind Clarinet rather than on objective reasons. >-- >matt wartell, university of pittsburgh msw@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu -- Wolf N. Paul * 3387 Sam Rayburn Run * Carrollton TX 75007 * (214) 306-9101 UUCP: {texbell, killer, dalsqnt}!dcs!wnp DOMAIN: wnp@killer.dallas.tx.us or wnp%dcs@texbell.swbt.com
wnp@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Wolf Paul) (06/15/89)
In article <17762@paris.ics.uci.edu> nagel@paris.ics.uci.edu (Mark Nagel) writes: )In article <KARL.89Jun13213653@dinosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu>, karl@dinosaur (Karl Kleinpaste) writes: )| )|Brad is not distributing rn itself; rather, he is only distributing )|some sort of library which may be linked against it, or which may be )|run standalone without rn. (Check for yourself; I just re-read the )|comp.newprod articles very very carefully to be sure.) ) )This still fails to address the other part of the question: is )ClariNet in violation of Rick Adams B News copyright if it uses B News )as the transport layer? If so, will he instead be providing his own )version of the news software or will he be getting (or buying) special )permission from Rick Adams to use B News? Well, you failed to read the next paragraph in Karl's posting: it answered the other part of your question to the extent that anyone other than Rick Adams can answer it. And so far at least, Rick has not chosen to answer your question publicly, which to me is a pretty good indication that the answer to that question is really none of your or my business. -- Wolf N. Paul * 3387 Sam Rayburn Run * Carrollton TX 75007 * (214) 306-9101 UUCP: {texbell, killer, dalsqnt}!dcs!wnp DOMAIN: wnp@killer.dallas.tx.us or wnp%dcs@texbell.swbt.com
geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) (06/19/89)
nagel@paris.ics.uci.edu writes: > Is ClariNet in violation of Rick Adams B News copyright if it uses B News > as the transport layer? Let's get real, you guys. Do you think Brad should also pay royalties to Peter Honeyman for using uucp as a transport layer? How about to Telebit for the use of their modem protocols? Gee, and how about Texas Instruments -- I'm sure there must be some 7400-series chips involved in this thing *somewhere*. Personally, I suspect that a lot of the screamers are just unhappy because they didn't think of it first, or didn't have the good old American (whoops, sorry, Canadian :-) get-up-and-go to put things into practice. I admire Brad for having the foresight to figure out there was an opportunity here, and for having the energy to make it all happen and to do a good job at it (e.g., the NewsClip feature). And yes, I've already subscribed. Brad's just in time to feed me the Tour de France results from the UPI wire. Thanks, Brad, and the best of luck to you. -- Geoff Kuenning geoff@ITcorp.com uunet!desint!geoff