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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!cbatt!ihnp4!amdcad!phil
From: phil@amdcad.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec,comp.sys.misc,comp.lang.misc,comp.misc,comp.org.decus,comp.sources.wanted
Subject: Re: Pirating software (was "Dibol to C")
Message-ID: <15020@amdcad.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 1-Mar-87 12:39:33 EST
Article-I.D.: amdcad.15020
Posted: Sun Mar  1 12:39:33 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 2-Mar-87 07:14:14 EST
References: <538@spdcc.COM> <2795@hammer.TEK.COM> <25420@rochester.ARPA>
Reply-To: phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai)
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Sunnyvale, California
Lines: 21
Xref: utgpu comp.sys.dec:83 comp.sys.misc:401 comp.lang.misc:308 comp.misc:306 comp.org.decus:76 comp.sources.wanted:673

In article <25420@rochester.ARPA> ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP (Mike Ciaraldi) writes:
>
>The author of Minix, a new Unix work-alike, says that
>he has had people give him programs that were identical to
>AT&T source code except for changing the names of the variables,
>claiming they were now not covered by the orignal copyright.
>He naturally turned them down for inclusion in his package.

In addition to copyright, Unix source code is also protected by
license agreements. Reimplementing the algorithms of Unix by looking
at the source code supplied by AT&T is not a way to get around the
licensing requirements. I believe Lauren Weinstein was very careful
NOT to look at the source to uucp when he was implementing his version
for the IBM PC. 

-- 
 I'd rather be compatible than right.

 Phil Ngai +1 408 982 7840
 UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,hplabs,allegra}!amdcad!phil
 ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.dec.com