Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uwvax!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!nis!pwcs!stag!syntel!dal
From: dal@syntel.mn.org (Dale Schumacher)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: is the shell copyrighted?
Message-ID: <091689A6859@syntel.mn.org>
Date: 17 Oct 89 02:46:22 GMT
Reply-To: dal@syntel.mn.org (Dale Schumacher)
Lines: 22
X-Member-Of: STdNET (ST Developer's Network)

In article <3725@ast.cs.vu.nl> ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes:
>In article <8910160448.AA06026@mordor.eng.umd.edu> djm@mordor.eng.umd.edu (David J. MacKenzie) writes:
>>
>>I just got from an archive a two-part posting by ast of 5 Oct 1988
>>containing the source code to a Minix shell.  There's no copyright
>>message on it; can I assume that means it's in the public domain, and
>>not covered by the Prentice-Hall restrictions?
>
>The shell was written by Charles Forsyth at the University of York in
>England.  England (unlike the U.S.) is a signatory to the Berne Convention,
>which means that the author of any work, including software, gets 
>automatic copyright to the work when it is created.  No notice is required.

I had heard that the U.S. had finally joined the Berne Convention, so this
will apply to all future unmarked U.S. works as well.  You will need to
explicitly disclaim the copyright to place it into the public domain.

\\   /  Dale Schumacher                         399 Beacon Ave.
 \\ /   (alias: Dalnefre')                      St. Paul, MN  55104-3527
  ><    ...umn-cs!midgard.mn.org!syntel!dal     United States of America
 / \\   "What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out,
/   \\  which is the exact opposite." -Bertrand Russell