Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.unix.wizards,comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: Who owns Unix(tm)?...
Message-ID: <8525@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 31-Aug-87 14:26:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.8525
Posted: Mon Aug 31 14:26:43 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 31-Aug-87 14:26:43 EDT
References: <1665@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> <8381@utzoo.UUCP> <797@Pescadero.ARPA>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 32
Keywords: stockholder ownership private enterprise

>	...comes divestiture, and _instantly_, a company which had been
>	involved, by law, in no development of hardware or software
>	for sale has a $30,000 product on the market...

You have the history slightly wrong, Kent.  Unix was available to commercial
outfits at scandalous prices well before divestiture, on the same theory as
for educational users:  "we developed this for our own use, since you want
it you can have it, as is, don't call us if it breaks".  What started with
divestiture was the marketing effort.

>	My point (I _must_ have one, right?) is that that product is
>	still just fine for AT&T internal use, and any value it has
>	in that regard is perfectly legitimate.  However, the added
>	commercial value derives from development work during a time
>	when commercial software development work by AT&T was _illegal_,
>	and, by normal rules of law, should not accrue to AT&T...

The same can be said of almost any AT&T asset, however.  The real question
underlying all this is whether AT&T, the company, should inherit some of
the assets of the Bell System, the defunct regulated monopoly.  Many of
those assets are of great value to a company which can market them freely,
instead of being bound by the restrictions of regulation.  Most of them
were created using the Bell System's monopoly-derived money, many at a
time when using them to compete in the open market would have brought the
wrath of the government down on Bell instantly.  Without those assets,
AT&T would largely cease to exist.  Think of it as the price we pay for
the continued existence of Bell Labs.

(Cripes, I never thought I'd find myself defending AT&T...!)
-- 
"There's a lot more to do in space   |  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
than sending people to Mars." --Bova | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry