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From: fnf@mcdsun.UUCP (Fred Fish)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: COPYRIGHT NOTICES (on program sources, of course)
Message-ID: <357@mcdsun.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Dec-69 18:59:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: mcdsun.357
Posted: Wed Dec 31 18:59:59 1969
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Aug-87 07:20:24 EDT
References: <6236@brl-smoke.ARPA> <25095@sun.uucp> <12133@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <330@brandx.rutgers.edu> <14134@topaz.rutgers.edu> <6316@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Reply-To: fnf@mcdsun.UUCP (Fred Fish)
Organization: Motorola Microcomputer Division
Lines: 27

In article <6316@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
>By the way, as I read the GNU COPYING rules, they act like an
>infection:  Suppose I packaged GNU EMACS along with a bunch of
>other "free" software into some sort of user-contributed tape.
>The GNU rules would spread to cover the entire package.  Then
>suppose I wanted to distribute the user-contributed tape as a
>"freebie" along with an operating system (like Gould's "D4"
>tape).  The GNU rules would, as I read them, then also 
>encompass the operating system.  As a commercial software

Gee, this sure rings a bell.  Right after I finished the first port of
GNU Emacs to a system V machine when I was at Unisoft, I was investigating
the possibility of including it as part of the standard Uniplus+ distribution,
(with all the normal GNU requirements for source availability for the
GNU Emacs part adhered to of course).  I gave a copy of the "COPYING"
file to our lawyer, who studied it in some detail and then pronounced
that if we included it, it would require us to give away the source
to ALL of Uniplus+.  I thought he was slightly daffy, but his opinion
(which carried more weight than mine :-) effectively killed the idea.
So Doug, you have the support of at least one lawyer's opinion on this
subject...

-Fred
-- 
= Drug tests; just say *NO*!
= Fred Fish  Motorola Computer Division, 3013 S 52nd St, Tempe, Az 85282  USA
= seismo!noao!mcdsun!fnf    (602) 438-3614