Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!mandrill!chet
From: chet@mandrill.CWRU.Edu (Chet Ramey)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Is there, is there, a UUCP protocol manual?
Summary: Source code, not protocols, proprietary
Message-ID: <2351@mandrill.CWRU.Edu>
Date: 21 Jan 88 17:32:44 GMT
References: <11238@brl-adm.ARPA> <364@igloo.UUCP>
Reply-To: chet@mandrill.CWRU.Edu (Chet Ramey)
Organization: CWRU Dept. of Computer Engineering, Cleveland OH
Lines: 26

In article <364@igloo.UUCP> rhes@igloo.UUCP (Richard H. E. Smith II) writes:
>In article <11238@brl-adm.ARPA> mjh@uunet.UU.NET writes:
>>As far as I know, there is no UUCP protocol manual because the protocols
>>are proprietary to AT&T.

>I hope not, since that puts other, net-distributed programs like UUPC in
>trouble.

It is my impression that the source code that implements the 
protocols is AT&T's trade secret, not the protocols themselves.

John Gilmore's packet of information was posted recently to comp.doc;
it has been posted before, with no complaint from AT&T.  When John
posted his first attempt at a public-domain UUCP (UUSLAVE), one of
the documents included was a letter from an AT&T employee stating
that the source code, which used the protocols in question, was not
derived from proprietary AT&T code and was therefore in the public 
domain.

From all this I conclude that the protocols are in the public domain.
I'd guess that no other "protocol manual" other than Greg Ghesson's
paper has ever been written because of the misconception about the
status of the protocols.

Hope this is correct,
Chet Ramey