Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!rutgers!seismo!sundc!gouldsd!mjranum
From: mjranum@gouldsd.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: uuslave.c public domain, blah, blah, blah...
Message-ID: <471@gouldsd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Feb-87 15:41:38 EST
Article-I.D.: gouldsd.471
Posted: Tue Feb 17 15:41:38 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Feb-87 20:32:47 EST
Organization: Gould Electronics, Landover MD.
Lines: 42
Xref: utgpu comp.mail.uucp:250 comp.sys.ibm.pc:1729


	I gather that uuslave.c (and extensions) are being re-formatted
into a GNU uuslave that will be maintained under the GNU license. While
this is, in some sense, a very good thing, there are two aspects that
bother me personally:

1) The people who are incorporating uuslave into GNU are NOT the original
authors. The original author is not known, and cannot be expected to 
speak for him/her/its self on the net. Possibly the original author was
expecting to control modification and distribution personally. It is 
equally possible, since the provenance of the code is unknown, that it
is, in fact, proprietary in some degree. I recently posted some of my own
hacks to uuslave to the net, under the assumption that it was public 
domain and would remain as such. I placed my own comments in the file, and
inserted a note that it was me that made the mods, I did not take the
liberty to place a copyright statement of my own in the work. I feel that
the approach in this case, of taking uuslave and making it GNU licensed
is rather obnoxious. If GNU wants a uuslave, they can bloody well do it
from scratch, or leave copyrights out of it.

2) recently I have read unpleasant rumors of Microsoft C producing 
'Copyright Microsoft' headers in executables. I fear that this same
kind of thing may wind up happening with the GNU uuslave. Not that
anyone would be so tacky as to make a uucp clone insert the magic
'Copyright under the terms of the... etc...' in all output files, but
in this absurd day and age, it pays to be vigilant. I fear the almighty
lawyer, who runs rampant, looking to make a lucrative buck over any
potentially valuable software. 

	I hope I'm not alone in feeling this way. I've followed the 
net discussion of the public domain yacc crisis. I hope that any other
people who feel the same as I do can continue to maintain the former
anarchic spirit of computing and let the corporate/legal mindset stew
in their own filth. 

	If anyone wants a pd uuslave.c, I'll give 'em a copy, and
fuck anyone else.

--mjr;
-- 
"It is better to shred the bugger than to bugger the shredder."
					-ancient doltic proverb.