Xref: utzoo news.admin:2960 news.sysadmin:792 comp.sources.wanted:4480 comp.sources.d:2402 Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!skep2!wcs From: wcs@skep2.ATT.COM (Bill.Stewart.[ho95c]) Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin,comp.sources.wanted,comp.sources.d Subject: Re: Please remove PD-YACC sources from your machine IMMEDIATELY Keywords: Unofficial, but mostly true Message-ID: <181@skep2.ATT.COM> Date: 6 Jul 88 03:44:29 GMT References: <3532@rpp386.UUCP> <560@ontenv.UUCP> Reply-To: wcs@skep2.UUCP (46323-Bill.Stewart.[ho95c],2G218,x0705,) Organization: (me, hanging out at AT&T Bell Labs in New Joisey) Lines: 38 In article <560@ontenv.UUCP> soley@ontenv.UUCP (Norman S. Soley) writes: :In article <3532@rpp386.UUCP>, jfh@rpp386.UUCP (John F. Haugh II) writes: :> Below is a copy of a letter which was received recently from AT&T. This :> letter explains the status of the ``Public Domain'' YACC which I :> recently posted about. :Actually It doesn't. [...] However what :is not clear from this posting is whether or not anyone at AT&T looked :at the file in question and determined that it does contain licenced :code or that they simply object to the use of their legally :trademarked name to describe this program which is otherwise legitimately A long time ago, on a DECUS* tape far, far away, was a copy of YACC that really shouldn't have been there because it *WAS* still AT&T code and not public domain. Periodically it pops up again, and periodically our lawyers have to remind people that yacc is a licensed product; as far as I know nobody cares about the name, though I haven't looked at our list of registered trademarks lately. If you want a yacc-like product that is free but copylefted, the GNU project's BISON is available through ftp from the usual archives. A more serious issue is whether there's any license restriction on code *produced* by yacc (since it contains the parser driver verbatim calling a bunch of tables.) I remember reading on the net that there isn't - does someone have an authoritative reference from AT&T? : :However if it does contain licenced code ... nuke it. And inform the :net that such is the case. Yup. Also, if you're using "Z", a vi-imitation written by Jim Goodnow, nuke it too. (It's his code, not ours, but you shouldn't rip him off either - an old version of Z has been distributed on BBSs.) -- # Thanks; # Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 2G218, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs * DEC WARS was recently reposted to rec.humor