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From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: C-News on Minix?
Message-ID: <3383@ast.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 26 Sep 89 20:35:57 GMT
References: <24898@louie.udel.EDU>
Reply-To: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Organization: VU Informatica, Amsterdam
Lines: 33

In article <24898@louie.udel.EDU> Leisner.Henr@xerox.com (marty) writes:
>I agree totally with Lars.  I don't understand what the problem is with P-H
>-- the GPL (Gnu Public License) seems clear enough as far as distribution
>requirements go.    

P-H has real lawyers, not amateur net lawyers.  When they see that something
is copyrighted by a third party, they want a clear legal release that will
stand up in court in the event that they get sued for copyright infringement.
Courts just don't understand funny notices in programs.  P-H has a form,
devised by its lawyers, which all of its authors are required to use when
they use copyrighted material.  In most cases, the author sends the form
to the copyright owner, who either signs it and sends it back, or says that
it is prepared to sign it upon payment of some fee.  From what I know of FSF
they are not about to sign a form devised by P-H's lawyers.

On the other hand, we just had a discussion about "Supplementary disks".
I would certainly have no objection to somebody porting the GNU software
to MINIX and preparing the appropriate number of disks containing them as
MINIX file systems, for example (or tar, or whatever).  As long as the
person or organization distributing them obeyed the GNU rules and was
prepared to incur the legal risk, that would seem to be ok.  I will continue
to collect software that I write, PD software, and copyrighted software
from others from whom the legal authorization is clear.  There is a MINIX
Centre in the U.K. that might do this for Europe if they want to, and perhaps
a similar thing can be set up in the U.S.  There is, incidentally, considerable
demand for access to comp.os.minix from people who have modems but are not
on USENET.  Such a cencould provide that access by storing comp.os.minix
on a disk accessible via FIDO, etc., possibly charging for access at some
reasonable rate.

Comments?

Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)