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From: bar...@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Barry Gold)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.unix,net.unix-wizards,net.legal
Subject: Where's the (c) on unix?
Message-ID: <933@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Mar-84 18:41:16 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.933
Posted: Wed Mar 21 18:41:16 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 23-Mar-84 21:02:07 EST
Reply-To: bar...@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Barry Gold)
Organization: System Development Corporation, Santa Monica
Lines: 200
Having heard from a friend that all of /usr/ucb except three programs was
public domain, I decided to look and see what was marked copyrighted and
what wasn't. I have also obtained a list from RMS@MIT-AI of software
in the 4.2BSD tape that is believed to be in the public domain.
According to the list, the three programs are ex, eyacc, and wc.c.
I also looked through /usr/local/bin (and the corresponding /usr/local/src)
to see what was and wasn't copyrighted. Some preliminary results on a
4.1 system:
CONTENTS OF /usr/ucb:
1kfix eyacc ls pxref vgrind
Mail f lsf reset vi
apl finger lsx rewind view
apropos fmt lxref rotate vmstat
biff fold man script vpq
ccat from mkstr see vpr
checknr gets more soelim vpr.nosoption
chfn grep msgs ssp vprint
chsh head newaliases strings vprm
clear help num symorder vtroff
colcrt iul page tra vwidth
colrm l pc trman w
compact last pi tset what
ctags leave pix u whatis
cxref lisp pmerge ul whereis
diffdir liszt print uncompact which
e lnall printenv unexpand whoami
edit lock prmail uptime xstr
error lpq pti users yes
ex lpr px uudecode
expand lprm pxp uuencode
I didn't check *all* these files, but here's the status of the ones I did
check:
source not found:
uptime
MH (and associated programs: comp,dist,folder,folders,forw,inc,
mh,mkprof,msg,next,prev,prompter,rmf,rmm,scan,show, sndmsg)
source access denied:
Mail uptime ex (& vi)
Marked copyright Regents of UC:
lisp liszt eyacc
Not marked:
checknr chsh clear colcrt
colrm compact ctags error
expand finger fold grep
head mkstr more msgs
num printenv soelim strings
tset ul uncompact unexpand
uudecode uuencode w wc
what whereis
CONTENTS OF /usr/local/bin:
MH e15 indent panout sfcopy
Pnews e15.help ined paragrep show
TrmTERM e17 ined.real pick sidel
a86 emacs intext pmail sidl
adduser emc intext2 pmail.old sidmdate
altacct emc.new istat pmail2 sidmdump
ar86 emc2 itp pmail2.old sidmload
bban etherwatch itpz prev sidmread
bug.ar fcopy itpz.xdict print1170 sidmwrite
c86 fd2 just prompter smail
calls file l pupechosend sndmsg
cchk file.mh l8086 pupechoserve sqzdir
cdb file.msg last pwd su
central find lastcomm qcalc sysline
charge fixlpr ld86 ranlib86 sysline.old
charges fixnews lgrep rcs sysversion
ci fixown localcmd rcsdiff talk
cn fjust lock rcsmerge teco
co folder mail.mh.testin rcssupport tfix
code folders makefont re trace
comp format mc recnews tymnet
copy fortune menu recover umodem
cost forw mh repl unpack
cost.awk fstodev mkprof report usage
cpdir ftp more rlog userlog
cpfont getfs msg rmail uurec
d9700 iconc netalias rmf v6run
d9700.old icont netnews rmm v7run
dbadd iconx netupd rn vanish
dbcreate id newacct rogue.noshesc vinodb
dblist idel newcmd roll vkbd
dbprint ident news rpl vsh
devf idl newsetup run wicomo
diracct idmboot newsetup.csh run.csh wicomo.real
dired idmdate newsgroups sc wm
dirstat idmdump newsinfo scan wmmore
dirtree idmload next scopy wmraw
dist idmread nm86 sdiracct wmscrn
dropme idmwrite old_emacs secure_csh wmshmon
dscript iidel out securesorry xlisp
dvi ilog page send xroff
e inajo page.old sendanews
e10 inc panin sendbnews
status of the files I checked:
source not found:
Pnews (local variant of inews)
cchk (c indentation checker)
menu
vkbd (virtual keyboard compiler for e15)
source access denied:
cdb (c debugger)
find
ci,co,ident,rcs,rcsdiff,rcsmerge,rlog
(part of Revision Control System - see below)
Marked copyright:
emacs copyright James Gosling
RCS source inaccessible, manuals say copyright
Walter F. Tichy
Marked proprietary
e15 proprietary Rand Corp.
Not marked:
calls code dvi fd2
mc more pmail talk
umodem vanish vsh
Special cases:
cchk was locally written and the author's home directory is
inaccessible
rn was locally written; the source is in the author's home directory
and not marked in any way.
The only indication that much of the stuff even comes from a given source
is an RCSID line at the beginning of most of the ucb stuff.
===========> FLAME ON <============
How are we poor innocent programmers to know what's copyrighted and what
isn't if BTL doesn't bother marking the stuff and there's non-copyrighted
stuff in the same directories?
I'm perfectly willing to respect everyone's copyright (even the "big bad
guys" like IBM and BTL), but I think I'm entitled to fair notice!!!
Don't you?
Awhile back a fellow netter called me to task for including the entire
text of dd.c along with a fix I was sending out to net.sources. I looked
back at it. NOT ONE WORD ABOUT COPYRIGHT appears anywhere in the
original source.
I'm going to wait awhile for answers, but unless somebody comes up with a
good reason to assume otherwise, I'm going to assume that anything
that doesn't have a copyright notice is available to port to my home
system and putz with--except for stuff like dd that I have other reasons
to expect to be BTL property.
My thanks go to James Gosling, Walter F. Tichy, and the authors of lisp
for taking the trouble to put notices in their programs. May the
Dark Trolls overtake BTL and anyone else who couldn't be bothered to
insert one measly comment with a notice at the start of their
proprietary programs.
For contrast, EVERY module of IBM's BSEPP program product starts out with:
**************************************************************
* *
* 5748-XX8 COPYRIGHT I B M CORPORATION 1979 *
* *
* LICENSED MATERIAL - PROGRAM PROPERTY OF I B M *
* *
**************************************************************
===========> FLAME OFF <============
How about it, you legal types out there? My layman's understanding of the
new copyright law is that publishing something without a notice doesn't
void the copyright (as the old law did), but definitely limits the
copyright holders recovery rights against innocent infringers
(those who weren't notified.)
And you other authors: anyone care to post your copyright notices where
people can see them?
Maybe we should have a non-expiring newsgroup to contain after-the-fact
copyright notices :-)
--
Barry Gold
usenet: {decvax!allegra|ihnp4}!sdcrdcf!ucla-s!lcc!barry
Arpanet: barry@BNL
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barryg
From: bar...@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Barry Gold)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.unix,net.unix-wizards,net.legal
Subject: Re: Where's the (c) on unix?
Message-ID: <935@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Mar-84 13:27:40 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.935
Posted: Thu Mar 22 13:27:40 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Mar-84 08:13:41 EST
References: <933@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Reply-To: bar...@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Barry Gold)
Organization: System Development Corporation, Santa Monica
Lines: 17
Follow up on the copyright status of the Rand Editor (e15). The latest
distribution contains the notice:
#ifdef COMMENT
Copyright abandoned, 1983, The Rand Corporation
#endif
This distribution also includes a newer version, e17, with the same notice.
Additional thanks to the Rand Corporation for putting copyright notices in
their programs, and for keeping us up to date when the copyright was
abandoned.
--
Barry Gold
usenet: {decvax!allegra|ihnp4}!sdcrdcf!ucla-s!lcc!barry
Arpanet: barry@BNL
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From: g...@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.unix,net.unix-wizards,net.legal
Subject: Re: Where's the (c) on unix?
Message-ID: <1823@rlgvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Mar-84 23:54:07 EST
Article-I.D.: rlgvax.1823
Posted: Thu Mar 22 23:54:07 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Mar-84 07:06:19 EST
References: <933@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA
Lines: 29
> source not found:
> uptime
> source access denied:
> Mail uptime ex (& vi)
Mail is not marked with any copyright notice, and "ex" is - copyright Regents
of the U of Ca. The source to "uptime" is called "w.c" (ever notice how the
output of "uptime" looks like the first line of "w"? There's a reason for
that...) and has no copyright notice; if you're curious about that one ask
m...@cbosgd.UUCP who wrote it. (Mail also appears in Bell's System V Release
2 under the pseudonym of "mailx".)
> How are we poor innocent programmers to know what's copyrighted and what
> isn't if BTL doesn't bother marking the stuff and there's non-copyrighted
> stuff in the same directories?
NONE OF BELL'S UNIX CODE IS COPYRIGHTED. IT IS PROTECTED BY TRADE SECRET
PROTECTION, WHICH IS MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE WITH COPYRIGHTING.
They don't "publish" their code in an unrestricted fashion. They make
everybody who buys UNIX source sign a license agreement with a non-disclosure
clause that says "I'm telling you a secret and you'd better not tell anyone else
if you don't want our lawyers on your *ss." You can't blame Bell for not
putting a copyright notice on their code; you can possibly blame your
management for not explaining the terms of the UNIX license.
Guy Harris
{seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy
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From: m...@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.unix,net.unix-wizards,net.legal
Subject: Re: Where's the (c) on unix?
Message-ID: <1137@cbosgd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Mar-84 01:13:01 EST
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.1137
Posted: Fri Mar 23 01:13:01 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Mar-84 07:27:50 EST
References: <933@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Lines: 11
The source to UNIX is not copyrighted. It is, however, covered
by your UNIX license, which I suggest you read before you start
making public distributions of UNIX source code. Basically, the
license (which SDC has signed, or you would not have a copy of UNIX)
says that the entire distribution is proprietary to Bell Labs, and
you may not disclose it to anyone who does not have a similar UNIX
license. If you, as an employee of SDC, choose to publish (by posting
to Usenet) the source to UNIX, then SDC has violated their UNIX license,
and I would expect one dilly of a lawsuit by AT&T against SDC. No doubt
SDC would not take kindly to your position in this matter. In other
words, don't do it.
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From: m...@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.unix,net.unix-wizards,net.legal
Subject: Re: Where's the (c) on unix?
Message-ID: <1143@cbosgd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Mar-84 11:17:46 EST
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.1143
Posted: Fri Mar 23 11:17:46 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Mar-84 09:36:12 EST
References: <933@sdcrdcf.UUCP> <1823@rlgvax.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Lines: 18
Yes, I wrote "w". That program (and of course uptime, which is
just a link to w) are in the public domain, and not copyrighted.
In general, any program which is in Berkeley UNIX which did not
appear in UNIX/32V is almost certainly in the public domain.
It says so in your Berkeley UNIX license. This includes Mail
as well. It doesn't include ex or vi (also the same program)
because they have the V6 ed command buried inside them, and ed
is covered by the AT&T UNIX license.
Berkeley and AT&T do not make any promises about any particular
program falling into one category or another, although it is
possible to ask for an opinion about the history of any particular
program. So if you publish or freely distribute a program from
Berkeley UNIX, you take the risk yourself - if AT&T claims that
the program is part of UNIX/32V and sues you, you're on your own.
Mark Horton
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seismo!brl-vgr!gwyn
From: g...@brl-vgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.unix,net.unix-wizards,net.legal
Subject: Re: Where's the (c) on unix?
Message-ID: <2837@brl-vgr.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 24-Mar-84 18:28:23 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-vgr.2837
Posted: Sat Mar 24 18:28:23 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Mar-84 08:26:17 EST
References: <933@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistics Research Lab
Lines: 6
UNIX sources from AT&T are not "published". They are provided UNDER
LICENSE. If you read your agreement with AT&T (or Western Electric)
you will see that you are not entitled to appropriate the software
for use on an unlicensed CPU.
Be careful, I suspect AT&T has better lawyers than you have.
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callan!geoff
From: ge...@callan.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning)
Newsgroups: net.unix,net.legal,net.sources
Subject: Re: Where's the (c) on unix? - legality of posting sources
Message-ID: <131@callan.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Mar-84 17:50:49 EST
Article-I.D.: callan.131
Posted: Mon Mar 26 17:50:49 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Mar-84 01:34:08 EST
References: <933@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Organization: Callan Data Systems, Westlake Village, CA
Lines: 41
BTL UNIX is not copyrighted, it is protected as a trade secret. This means
that copyright notices are not only not required, they could be interpreted
as voiding the trade secrecy. If you read the standard Bell contract for
UNIX (if you don't have a copy, it can be found in "The Software Legal Book"
by Paul Hoffman), you will discover that it clearly states that ALL source
code distributed by Bell Labs as a part of UNIX is a trade secret of Bell Labs.
Further, there is a very long list of EVERY program and file that is covered
under the contract.
Now, trade-secret protection is a very tricky think. It can be lost simply
by having the object of the secret be published. For example, if I find out
the secret of Coca-Cola and print it in the LA Times, Coke Corp. can
prosecute me for the billions of dollars of damages I have done them. But
the secrecy has been lost, and ANYONE else can use the formula without any
liability whatsoever.
This means to me that Bell cannot protect any shell script or other world-
readable ASCII file, regardless of what their contract says. (Note that
this includes /usr/dict/words). They also cannot protect anything against
programs such as "strings", or for that matter against disassembly. They
CAN prosecute you for posting "dd.c" to net.sources--but, as I see it, once
you have done so, they cannot prosecute anyone else for making use of that
source file.
There are two caveats to this last statement: first, don't get the bright
idea of posting /usr/src to the net. In that kind of case, since everyone
on the net is *WELL* aware that the sources are actually a trade secret, I
could easily see a court deciding that anyone who made use of those sources
was civilly liable for damages. Second, remember that when you post any
source to the net illegally, your institution as well as yourself is liable
for damages (because they are the holders of the license and are responsible
for making sure you don't misuse sources). So if you want to bankrupt your
employer or your university, just post /usr/src to the net and make sure Bell
notices...
Final caveat: I am not a lawyer or legally trained. Believe the foregoing
at your own risk!
Geoff Kuenning
Callan Data Systems
...!ihnp4!sdcrdcf!trwrb!wlbr!callan!geoff