Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!mailrus!bbn!bbn.com!rsalz
From: rsalz@bbn.com (Rich Salz)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: What USENET can do and what it can't
Message-ID: <1587@fig.bbn.com>
Date: 20 Mar 89 17:58:36 GMT
References: <2951@looking.UUCP> <21716@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <2329@van-bc.UUCP>
Organization: BBN Systems and Technologies Corporation
Lines: 21

>I think it's worth pointing out that at least some of the "free" software
>floating around the net was done by people working under government
>contracts, and as such couldn't be sold. Only given away.

This is a bit misleading in a couple of ways.

The first item is, "what software"?  There's FLEX, the BRL emulation
package, OOPS -- all freely redistributable.  The person who posted the
above article hasn't been able to recall what he's thinking of, either.

The second point is that just because something doesn't have a copyright,
that doesn't mean that it can be given away.  Several government
agencies charge exhorbitant fees for the software, and will only give it
to you if you agree not to redistribute it.  You can make a case that this
is morally wrong, if not downright illegal, but good luck:  interested
parties might want to get a copy of Macsyma from the Department of Energy,
or any software out of NASA's COSMIC and send it to for publication in
comp.sources.unix.
	/rich $alz
-- 
Please send comp.sources.unix-related mail to rsalz@uunet.uu.net.