Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site masscomp.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!masscomp!z
From: z@masscomp.UUCP (Steve Zimmerman)
Newsgroups: net.emacs
Subject: Re: dbx distribution revisited
Message-ID: <730@masscomp.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Jun-85 09:50:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: masscomp.730
Posted: Wed Jun 26 09:50:45 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Jun-85 05:47:34 EDT
References: <2355@topaz.ARPA> <6447@Shasta.ARPA>
Organization: Masscomp - Westford, MA
Lines: 31

The legal issues involved here certainly are somewhat messy.  In the
case of AT&T code, even greater care must be taken compared to something
like Gosling's code, since the AT&T code is protected by trade secret
protection, which is considerably broader in scope than simple copyright
protection.  Under trade secret protection, algorithms and ideas as well
as code are protected.  To definitively say how that would relate to a
case such as dbx is hard to do without expert legal advice, but there
are some guidelines.  For example, Joe Chapman of CCA Uniworks stated
the following in a recent message to this newsgroup:

	Beginning with CCA EMACS version 162.36z, CCA EMACS no longer
	contained any of the code from Mr. Montgomery's EMACS, or any
	methods or concepts which would be known only by programmers
	familiar with BTL EMACS of any version.

This is essentially the same wording used by AT&T in a letter to CCA at
the time CCA and AT&T resolved the situation regarding CCA EMACS and
Warren Montgomery's code, and is a good indication of what AT&T
considers trade secret protection to mean.

Which side of the line does dbx fall on, and how much risk is there in
using it for sites without source licenses?  I certainly can't offer a
definitive answer here.  However, I do know that during my time as
project manager for CCA EMACS I dealt quite a bit with the CCA lawyers,
and they would never have let me put something like dbx into the CCA
EMACS distribution.  So I would suggest that individuals either check
with their own company attorneys on the matter before using this code,
or else that a qualified attorney post an opinion to the net.

	Steve Zimmerman
	Masscomp