Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hoptoad!gnu
From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: IS MT UUCP Legal??
Keywords: atari st, gnu, uucp
Message-ID: <8024@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 17 Jul 89 18:56:35 GMT
References: <4456ee6c.14a1f@gtephx.UUCP> <1602@atari.UUCP> <613@bdt.UUCP>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Grasshopper Group in San Francisco
Lines: 43

David Beckemeyer is correct -- MT UUCP is legal.  I supplied him with a
prerelease of gnuucp, he ported it to the ST, and provided the changes
back to me.  He also wrote some auxiliary programs (NOT linked with FSF
code) that do things like email and netnews, building on the facilities
provided by gnuucp.  I don't think any of you would claim that because
the Unix netnews code uses uucp for its transport mechanism, its
copyright must somehow be tied in with Unix uucp's.  Ditto David's code.

GNUUCP was distributed to David before the "generic" GNU GENERAL
PUBLIC LICENSE was written, so it uses the old GNU license.

GNUUCP has not been publicly distributed by FSF because I don't have
the time to coordinate a large number of changes to it.  I am having
trouble keeping up with the small set of people who are currently
working on the code.  Unlike many GNU programs, this one is being used
on many small systems (ST's, Macs, Amigas, CP/M, MSDOS) as well as a
variety of Unix machines.  An earlier version of GNUUCP is the
transport layer for the program (ufgate) that gateways Fidonet email to
and from the Usenet, for example.

Without a central clearinghouse (one person) coordinating changes,
there would soon be twenty variants, with twenty sets of bugs and
features -- not what I or FSF are trying to accomplish.  We're looking
for a coordinator for it, who is as committed to keeping the small
systems supported as the virtual memory 32-bit Unix systems.  This
attitude isn't common in the GNU project, but for a product that is
part of the "glue" in the Worldnet, it is vital.

By the way, David Beckemeyer said:
> 	2)  I am not selling a derivative work of GNUUCP.   I am
> 	    selling my programs, the manual, and a warrantee and
> 	    professional support service.  The service includes
> 	    technical support and a free BBS and also UUCP
> 	    connections.

It is fine to sell GNU programs and derivative works.  You just have to
include the source code, and the right to redistribute, along with the
binaries (if any).  The Free Software Foundation itself sells GNU
programs, and you can too!
-- 
John Gilmore      {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid}!hoptoad!gnu      gnu@toad.com
      "And if there's danger don't you try to overlook it,
       Because you knew the job was dangerous when you took it"