Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rutgers!bellcore!faline!sabre!gamma!pyuxp!rruxa!gwl From: gwl@rruxa.UUCP (George W. Leach) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Who owns Unix(tm)? (was: Re: Mach, the new standard?) Message-ID: <298@rruxa.UUCP> Date: Wed, 26-Aug-87 13:57:08 EDT Article-I.D.: rruxa.298 Posted: Wed Aug 26 13:57:08 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 28-Aug-87 07:06:26 EDT References: <1665@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> <8381@utzoo.UUCP> <797@Pescadero.ARPA> <26332@sun.uucp> Organization: Bell Communications Research Lines: 46 In article <26332@sun.uucp>, guy%gorodish@Sun.COM (Guy Harris) writes: > > ... the gall of AT&T claiming to "own" Unix(tm) really gets to me. At the > > [stuff deleted........] > > Sorry, but the mere fact that people paid company X for product Y does not mean > that the customers paid for everything that company X developed, and it > definitely doesn't mean that the customers own the rights to everything that > company X developed. As Phil Ngai pointed out, UNIX was developed as a tool > for internal use (as well as a research project); they may have been enjoined ^^^^^^^^^^^^ > from selling it as a full-fledged product (I've heard people claim that they > weren't even enjoined from this, but I don't know), but they were entitled to > sell it in unsupported form, just as they sold some other products. When the > Consent Decree's restrictions were lifted, they had the perfect right to sell > UNIX as a supported product. Correct! And in addition, people still benefit in a way from the original intent of UNIX to support internal use. A great deal of the software that the RBOCs use in day to day operations and support functions was (old Bell System) and still is developed, and operational under UNIX by Bellcore. Bellcore has rights to UNIX under some grandfather clauses from Divestiture. So we DO NOT pay like the same fees (if we do at all!!!) that another company may. SO in a sense the general public and the RBOC stockholders indirectly benefit from not having to pay high licensing fees to AT&T for our use of UNIX. BTW: Some organizations have V8 UNIX under similar grandfather clauses. However, somewhere along the line I am sure the free ride (or cheaper ride) must end. But I don't know the details of that. > Guy Harris > {ihnp4, decvax, seismo, decwrl, ...}!sun!guy > guy@sun.com George W. Leach Bell Communications Research New Jersey Institute of Technology 444 Hoes Lane 4A-1129 Computer & Information Sciences Dept. Piscataway, New Jersey 08854 Newark, New Jersey 07102 (201) 699-8639 UUCP: ..!bellcore!indra!reggie ARPA: reggie%njit-eies.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere Dr. Seuss "One fish two fish red fish blue fish"