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From: vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: GNU Emacs compiling/executable.
Summary: not on sgi.com
Message-ID: <79817@sgi.sgi.com>
Date: 4 Jan 91 19:03:39 GMT
References: <1991Jan1.012638.29700@ecf.utoronto.ca> <27671.2781e39b@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Sender: guest@sgi.sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 32

> Any volunteers?  (My own installation doesn't work right...)  Could SGI 
> do this [distribute GNU objects] without running afoul of GNU's
>    copyright / license policy?  


Not as I understand copylefting.  We'd also have to provide the source.

There are also nontrivial concerns about liabilities.  If you get a copy of
the GNU nuclear reactor control system binary from sgi.com, and you have a
meltdown that kills half a million citizens, who is going to get sued?
If SGI distributes something, we have to make at least a half-hearted
effort to make it work, and to keep it working on various releases.  For
example, measurable effort is spent on Kermit.  (Yes, I know we have bugs.
I know that fact orders of magnitude more than almost any customer can
conceive.)

There are problems with who would keep an official SGI-GNU archive up to
date, instead of doing the work purchased by SGI and indirectly all
customers.

Finally, only bone fide "research and academic institutions" and
organizations doing direct support for official U.S.Gov. contracts can
legally FTP copies of anything to or from sgi.com.  This is because SGI is
one of those nasty, scum bag commercial organizations.

This is not an official statement from Silicon Graphics.  It is only a note
from a slightly informed engineer, with some effect on what is put on
sgi.com.  Please continue looking for neutral ground to hold the GNU IRIX
binaries.


Vernon Schryver,   vjs@sgi.com.