henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (07/29/86)
> ... for 4.3 we went > through a lot to get everything with a consistent copyright notice on > it, all the way down to the man pages. I trust you took care *not* to put the copyright notice on things you didn't write, like the old troff->Versatec scan conversion (which was from U of Toronto, although both the attribution and the licensing restrictions got lost along the road to Berkeley). I haven't seen a 4.3 yet, but I'd be willing to bet that the Regents of the University of California are claiming credit for and ownership of at least a few things they didn't write. Some of us think this practice is pretty sleazy, not to mention legally dubious. (For the record, the Berkeleyite who imported the Versatec-troff stuff wasn't aware of its origin -- it came via a third party who was evidently sloppy about attribution and licensing restrictions -- so there wasn't any deliberately shady behavior involved in its acquisition. There has never been any question, however, that it was not written at UCB and UCB has no right to claim copyright on it.) -- EDEC: Stupidly non-standard brain-damaged incompatible Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology proprietary protocol used. {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry
ado@elsie.UUCP (Arthur David Olson) (07/29/86)
> > . . .in any case, the way that works out, the Regents > > of the University of California hold the copyright. . . > . . .but I'd be willing to bet that the Regents of the > University of California are claiming credit for and ownership of at > least a few things they didn't write. Some of us think this practice > is pretty sleazy, not to mention legally dubious. Indeed. At this point, the Regents merely claim the copyright. A court might--or might not--uphold the claim; the substantial Federal funding that went into 4.3 makes it arguable that the copyright rightfully belongs to the Federal government. Of course, all us law abiding types will assume that the Regent's claim is valid unless it's found invalid. -- The above is the sole responsibility of. . . UUCP: ..decvax!seismo!elsie!ado ARPA: elsie!ado@seismo.ARPA DEC, VAX, Elsie & Ado are Digital, Borden & Ampex trademarks.