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Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watdragon!cdshaw
From: cdshaw@watdragon.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Newsgroups: net.lang,net.legal
Subject: Re: lex and yacc in the public domain (responses)
Message-ID: <864@watdragon.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 13-Apr-86 16:05:50 EST
Article-I.D.: watdrago.864
Posted: Sun Apr 13 16:05:50 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Apr-86 06:18:18 EST
References: <481@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU> <518@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: cdshaw@watdragon.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 58
Xref: watmath net.lang:2344 net.legal:3256

In article <481@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU> garry%cadif-oak
>
>A couple weeks ago I asked whether lex and yacc, as distributed by Berkeley,
>were protected (they had no explicit copyright notices). 
>summary: 
>
>    1) it can't be copyrighted because it has no explicit notice,
>    2) it may be copyrighted anyhow,
>    3) it is protected by an AT&T trade secret agreement,
>    4) it is not a trade secret, since no effort was made to maintain its 
>       secrecy.
>
>I trust I've gotten the gist of it right? :-)  (Apologies in advance!)
>
>So I'm going to hunt for true public domain copies. (net.lang people: help?)

In some article (Brad Templeton) writes in his usual propertarian manner:
>
>I am amazed.  You *know* that these things are somebody else's property.
>You *know* that they don't want you to take them.  Yet people can quibble
>over whether there were proper copyright notices or if trade secrets were
>properly enforced.
>
>Very young children say, "because mommy will punish me."
>Older children say, "because the law will punish me."
>Later it's "because it's against the law, and we should follow the law."
>
>Finally, it's "because stealing hurts the victim."
>
>How many members of the net are still at the child's level.
>If you see somebody's money on the ground, do you take it if you can get
>away with it?  If it isn't tagged but you know who it belongs to, do you
>take it?
>-- 
>Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473

Yes indeed.. how many members are at such a level to seriously present
an inane example of cash lying on the ground as a parallel to software piracy?

I do so hate having my intelligence (whatever) insulted in this manner.

To get to the point of the above material.. It is abundantly clear that
we (the software producer/consumer community) have not come to any agreement
whatsoever over a software rights structure. Propertarians such as
Mr. Templeton follow a line that can be roughly paraphrased as
"It's mine, and I have all rights forever". 

On the other end of the scale, it seems that the GNU types say 
"Hey, it's free for everyone.. do what you like".

All one gathers from such representations are what the politics of the
proponents are. While no structure can please everyone, somewhere in 
the middle lies the "true path", and only through clear thought AND NOT
POLEMICS can this lingering dispute be resolved.

Chris Shaw    watmath!watrose!cdshaw  or  cdshaw@watmath
University of Waterloo
Bogus as HELL !!!