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From: ed@mtxinu.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,comp.mail.uucp,comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: uucp source copyright status - IMPORTANT
Message-ID: <318@mtxinu.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Mar-87 16:53:32 EST
Article-I.D.: mtxinu.318
Posted: Mon Mar 23 16:53:32 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Mar-87 05:25:49 EST
References: <480@gouldsd.UUCP>
Reply-To: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould)
Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 30
Keywords: no copyright notices in all the uucp source I've ever seen.
Xref: utgpu comp.os.minix:444 comp.mail.uucp:347 comp.sources.d:485

In article <480@gouldsd.UUCP> mjranum@gouldsd.UUCP (Marcus J Ranum) writes:
>	The other day I happened upon something QUITE interesting ...
>THE SOURCE FOR UUCP HAS NO COPYRIGHT NOTICES IN IT except for in some of
>the more recent utilities such as uuencode and uudecode. 

The legal advice I've received over the years indicates:

The lack of copyright notices is essentaially irrelevent.  The source
licence under which you received the code protects it as a *trade
secret,* which means that it contains "intellectual property" of the
licensor and that it may be disclosed only in accordance with the terms
of the license.

The original Unix sources were protected only as trade secrets.  It is
only recently that vendors have been adding copyrights to the source as
well.  Copyright does not imply anything about trade secret, i.e.
trade secret items may or may not be copyrighted as well.

Nor does the lack of copyright notice imply lack of copyright.  I don't
remember the details, but recent (well relatively recent - it was
within the last 10 years) legislation has allowed for copyrighting of
materials even if no notice is given.

Consult a lawyer for real advice.

-- 
Ed Gould                    mt Xinu, 2560 Ninth St., Berkeley, CA  94710  USA
{ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed   +1 415 644 0146

"A man of quality is not threatened by a woman of equality."