Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!uwvax!rutgers!sdcsvax!ucbvax!cbosgd!mandrill!neoucom!wtm
From: wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: uucico (chug chug screech blop) on the 3b1, ver 3.51
Message-ID: <960@neoucom.UUCP>
Date: 20 Jan 88 05:27:27 GMT
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Lines: 59
Keywords: how is the hotline dealing whit it?

Hi,

Several people have asked me to email / post the patched up version
of uucico that reputedly fixes problems in version 3.51.  I didn't
want to seem calous by not responding, so I thought I'd answer
collectively via the Net.

I read over my license agreement, trying to decide what to do.
There is an interesting paradox in paragraphs 3A and 3B of the
agreement.

3A basically says that you have 90 days to seek
replacement of software that is "not in good woking order".  OK,
fair enough I guess...

However... 3B says that AT&T doesn't promise that the sofware "meet
your requirements, or that the SOFTWARE operation will be
error-free or uninterupted".  In other words, they don't guarantee
anything other than Unix will occupy disk space, if even that.

I wonder just what "good working order" is?

Anyway, I guess that means that they don't promise that uucico
won't crash while it is running.  That could explain some apparent
obstinance of the Hotline, since giving out patches and fixes
really would be an act of courtesty rather than a requirement as
defined by the license.  Thus, I appreciate the help I have
received very much.  What puzzles me is why I talked the friendly
(and I really honestly mean that) people at the hotline into
sending me a copy and some people are still being told that the
hotline never heard of such a bug in uucico.

I guess the best thing is to be very firm and very polite, and
explain very, very explicitly what is the matter and explain
exactly what correlates the crashes.  It took me three calls
blaming uucico.  They did keep track of the "tickets" and I got
action after the third consecutive complaint about uucico.  Also
mention that you have been following this discussion on Usenet to
the engineer that handles your call.  Some of them read Usenet.



Now my dilema is that I'd like the people (whom I assume have
legitimately purchased ver 3.51) who have asked me for the patch to
be able to have it, but my license says that I can't share my
software without (presumably) massive red tape...  But since the
patched uucico sort of "mysteriously" showed up on my mahcine via
email, I don't know whether it is part of the licensed software
that makes up ver 3.51, or in some other fashion is property of
AT&T.

Anybody at AT&T know?  If there is a consensus I'll post it or
email as is appropriate.  But I want to be careful lest the fone
police get after me (remember the movie _The_President's_Men_ or
whatever it was called?).


--Bill Mayhew
...!cbosgd!neoucom!impulse!wtm