Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!husc6!panda!genrad!decvax!decwrl!kent
From: kent@decwrl.DEC.COM (Christopher A. Kent)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: AT&T copyrights (was Re: Swedish copyright laws)
Message-ID: <7218@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: Mon, 29-Dec-86 20:42:18 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.7218
Posted: Mon Dec 29 20:42:18 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Dec-86 00:35:41 EST
References: <8612171607.AA09065@EDDIE.MIT.EDU> <82@ames.UUCP> <1572@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU> <101@ames.UUCP>
Reply-To: kent@decwrl.UUCP (Christopher A. Kent)
Organization: DEC Western Research Laboratory
Lines: 30

AT&T has been involved in some sleaze. So has Berkeley. Said sleaze
tends to consist of slapping your own copyright/license agreement on
code developed elsewhere, with no regard for the original copyright,
nor acknowledgement of the original developer.

Two cases in point: Berkeley distributes a system for interpreting
troff output on Versatec printers. To my knowledge, the code is
marked with a copyright benefiting the Regents of the University
of California. The code was originally developed and copyright by
the University of Toronto; no mention is made of this fact.

AT&T includes with system V a version of cron that was originally
developed at Purdue University, and left Purdue with a staff member
that went to work for (then) Bell Labs. The code was copyright
the Purdue Research Foundation. Said staff member spread said version
of cron throughout Bell Labs, and it finally hit the Unix development
group, who slapped a AT&T copyright on it and included it in the
next distribution. No acknowledgement of Purdue is made. Purdue considered
raising a ruckus (I was involved) but we determined it wouldn't
be worth the effort.

Berkeley isn't making money out of the deal, so I'm more likely to
forgive them. AT&T has given us all so much hassle about licensing
and non-disclosure that it really gets me that they pull this kind
of nonsense.

chris
-- 
Chris Kent	Western Research Laboratory	Digital Equipment Corporation
kent@decwrl.dec.com	decwrl!kent			(415) 853-6639