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From: steve@acich.UUCP (Steve Westfall)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.unix.wizards,comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: Who owns Unix(tm)? (was: Re: Mach, the new standard?)
Message-ID: <263@acich.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Aug-87 13:25:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: acich.263
Posted: Tue Aug 25 13:25:07 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Aug-87 03:54:29 EDT
References: <1665@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> <8381@utzoo.UUCP> <797@Pescadero.ARPA> <617@winchester.UUCP>
Organization: Automated Concepts, Inc. - Chicago
Lines: 28
Keywords: nonsense
Summary: monopolies have rights too!
Xref: mnetor comp.arch:1957 comp.unix.wizards:3907 comp.os.misc:106

> In article <2232@xanth.UUCP> kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:
> >
> >. . . the gall of AT&T
> >claiming to "own" Unix(tm) really gets to me.  At the time Unix was
> >developed, WITH SUBSCRIBER FUNDS, AT&T was a regulated monopoly,

Since when does the money that you send to pay a bill remain your
property???  Normally it is considered to be the property of the
company whose bill you were paying.  You owed them, right???  They
provided you with some service?  And yes, AT&T was a regulated monopoly.
Their rates were set by governmental bodies, and that rate-fixing was
the price that they paid for being a monopoly.  They gave up the right
to set their own prices.  No one ever said that they had to go beyond
that and donate all their profits to the public.

> >specifically prohibited from being in the computer business.

And they weren't in the computer business.  But they did develop
computer technology that could be used in their telecommunications
business, like UNIX, which enabled them to handle the text processing
for all their patent applications, and later was used for switching
applications.  You don't own UNIX any more than you own their switches.

-- 
Steve Westfall
Automated Concepts, Inc. - Chicago
(312) 346-8640
UUCP Mail:  {ihnp4|gargoyle}!acich!steve