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