Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!rutgers!ll-xn!oberon!pollux.usc.edu!papa From: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: TERMCAP and CURSES for the Amiga Message-ID: <5677@oberon.USC.EDU> Date: 13 Dec 87 05:16:09 GMT Sender: nobody@oberon.USC.EDU Reply-To: papa@pollux.usc.edu () Organization: Felsina Software, Los Angeles Lines: 38 Wayne Hamilton writes to me: >/* Written 12:39 am Dec 6, 1987 by papa@pollux.usc.edu in uxc.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.amiga */ >/* ---------- "Re: TERMCAP and CURSES for the Amiga" ---------- */ >The sources for termcap and curses are copyrighted by AT&T, and it is illegal >to distribute them over electronic networks. >-- Marco >/* End of text from uxc.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.amiga */ > it may well be illegal to distribute them, but how did AT&T get >the rights away from ken arnold and the regents of the U of C??? > wayne hamilton > U of Il and US Army Corps of Engineers CERL I stand corrected. I should have said TERMINFO instead of TERMCAP. For CURSES this is the copyright notice (from /usr/include/curses.h): /* @(#)curses.h 1.1 86/07/08 SMI; from UCB 5.1 85/05/07 */ /* * Copyright (c) 1980 Regents of the University of California. * All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement * specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution. */ According to this, Ken Arnold does not hold any copyright, probably because the work was "for hire" for UCB. Note that the argument about the illegality of distributing such code over electronic networks still stands. The "conditions for redistribution" mentioned in the above notice include the requirement of an "AT&T source license". Not an inexpensive thing, especially if the user/institution did not have the original berkeley license. AT&T has an 800 number to tell you how much it would cost you to get any particular UNIX source, depending on your current license. -- Marco