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- Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
- Path: sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!mel.dit.csiro.au!wanda.mel.dit.CSIRO.AU!smart
- From: smart@wanda.mel.dit.CSIRO.AU (Robert Smart)
- Subject: Re: AT&T vs. BSDI --> 4.3BSD-NET2 distribution requires AT&T license!!!
- Message-ID: <1992Jul21.104627.3353@mel.dit.csiro.au>
- Keywords: AT&T 'Death Star' rises over BSDI's horizon [Tel. 1-800-800-4BSD
- Sender: news@mel.dit.csiro.au
- Organization: CSIRO, Division of Information Technology, Melbourne
- References: <l6nibgINNje6@neuro.usc.edu>
- Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 10:46:27 GMT
- Lines: 13
-
- Many years ago I heard a talk by an AT&T employee, Denis Ritchie, in
- which he said that the objective in distributing unix free to universities
- was so that people could learn about the operating system ideas contained
- therein and apply them to commercial operating systems (which unix then
- wasn't). It does not seem fair to then claim that everybody who has seen
- those ideas is contaminated and can't apply them. It is ridiculous to
- claim that by licensing source free to every place where future inventors
- are likely to be you have acquired protection of that source which is
- better than a patent! It doesn't even have a time limit or have to
- conform to the patent offices strict (if often misapplied) standards.
- This is insanity. Surely this will be thrown out of court.
-
- Bob Smart
-