Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!apple!bbn!news From: news@bbn.COM (News system owner ID) Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix Subject: Re: USENIX Board Studies UUCP Message-ID: <48619@bbn.COM> Date: 21 Nov 89 21:40:53 GMT References: <287@usenix.UUCP> <1624@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <1989Nov16.182104.23746@utzoo.uucp> Reply-To: pplaceway@bbn.com (Paul W Placeway) Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA Lines: 20 henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: < If you really want a UUCP replacement to catch on, it has to be something < that *everyone*, even the folks with nervous lawyers or absolutely no money, < can run, and that vendors can distribute without extra paperwork or cost. For a real-world example of just this (even a communications program!), just look at the way Columbia handles Kermit. The Columbia license for use is even less restrictive than the FSF license (partially because the Columbia folks aren't out to prove something religious about software, freedom, and intellectual property). If it isn't free, it won't be as widely distributed as, say, Kermit or Emacs or TeX. As a side note, I've thought of purposing Kermit as a new UUCP protocol, because it's a good worst-case fall back (Kermit is even better than 'g' at getting around bad communication situations). -- Paul Placeway (Mac Kermit coord; comm. hacker in general)