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From: jpm@bnl.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: uucp source copyright status - IMPORTANT
Message-ID: <73@bnl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Mar-87 01:45:36 EST
Article-I.D.: bnl.73
Posted: Thu Mar 26 01:45:36 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Mar-87 11:35:46 EST
References: <480@gouldsd.UUCP> <694@brl-sem.ARPA>
Organization: Brookhaven National Lab. Upton, N.Y.
Lines: 17
Xref: utgpu comp.os.minix:453 comp.mail.uucp:366

>> ...THE SOURCE FOR UUCP HAS NO COPYRIGHT NOTICES IN IT...
> 
> Up until very recently you never found a copyright notice in UNIX software.
> UNIX is not protected by copyright, but rather by trade secret.  In your
> agreement with AT&T (or Western in the old days), you agreed not to
> divulge the UNIX source code nor information on how it operates.  Despite
> the lack of copyright notices in UUCP, it is still AT&T proprietary.

What about people who have obtained UNIX sources without ever being bound
by an AT&T license agreement?  The site they got them from is in trouble,
but what legal action can AT&T take against the individual? (not that
anybody in their right mind would want to be the test case; AT&T has more
lawyers than all the rest of us combined :-))
-- 
John McNamee		jpm@BNL.ARPA		decvax!philabs!sbcs!bnl!jpm

	"Timesharing is the use of many people by a computer"