Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!purdue!gatech!udel!princeton!phoenix!rjchen
From: rjchen@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Raymond Juimong Chen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: PLANETS.COM
Summary: The copyright message you found doesn't mean what you think it means
Message-ID: <1782@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 20 Feb 88 13:37:37 GMT
References: <4435@watdcsu.waterloo.edu>
Distribution: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 32

tknight@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (T.Knight - Computing Services):
> 
>    A few days ago someone was asking for source to PLANETS.COM that was
> posted recently. I just ran PLANETS through CHK4BOMB and found a
> "Copyright 1985 Borland Inc." message in it. When you invoke PLANETS
> it displays the message "PLANETS V3.0 is a Public Domain Program". Looks
> like someone's doing a little piracy.

You see the "Copyright 1985 Borland Inc." because the program was written
in Turbo Pascal.  The copyright message is included with all TPascal
programs--it indicates that the library routines belong to Borland.

You'll encounter the same thing if you compile a program with MSC or
Turbo C or practically any other high level language.  The copyright message
applies to the library routines and not to the entire program.
(However, read your licensing agreement before distributing programs
you compiled with a particular compiler.  Some companies ask for
royalties or similar nonsense if you distribute a program written with
their compiler.)

However, the fact that the program was distributed without documentation
and without its concomitant help file does look suspicious.
--
Raymond Chen	UUCP: ...allegra!princeton!{phoenix|pucc}!rjchen
		BITNET: rjchen@phoenix.UUCP, rjchen@pucc
		ARPA: rjchen@phoenix.PRINCETON.EDU
"Say something, please!  ('Yes' would be best.)" - The Doctor
-- 
Raymond Chen	UUCP: ...allegra!princeton!{phoenix|pucc}!rjchen
		BITNET: rjchen@phoenix.UUCP, rjchen@pucc
		ARPA: rjchen@phoenix.PRINCETON.EDU
"Say something, please!  ('Yes' would be best.)" - The Doctor