*BSD News Article 10082


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From: bhoughto@sedona.intel.com (Blair P. Houghton)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.wizards,comp.org.usenix
Subject: Re: BSDI/USL Lawsuit -- More Bad News for Human Beings...
Date: 19 Jan 1993 03:48:15 GMT
Organization: Intel Corp., Chandler, Arizona
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Distribution: inet
Message-ID: <1jftlvINNq62@chnews.intel.com>
References: <1ja6bgINNh23@chnews.intel.com> <BZS.93Jan16205935@world.std.com> <1jdibnINN52u@usenet.pa.dec.com>
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In article <1jdibnINN52u@usenet.pa.dec.com> ed@pa.dec.com writes:
>[Houghton]
>> I'm all for intellectual property, but ...
>
>Could you be clear about what you mean by "intellectual property?"  I
>suspect you have an understanding of the concept that is different
>from the legal meaning.

The legal meaning has something to do with intangible
assets accounting; "intellectual property" isn't a thing
unto the law so much as a collection of things the free
dissemination of which one has a vested interest in
preventing.  Patents and Copyrights are the usual
protected elements of intellectual property.

[HAY!  I answered the question.  Where's my lollipop?  Chiseler.]

>> THEY'LL NEVER GET THE SETUID-BIT!!! NEVER!!!
>> (They can't.  It's PD.  Thanks, Dennis. :-))
>
>If by "PD" you mean "Public Domain," then no, it's not.  The set-uid

Yes, it is.  Ritchie placed it there, after the patent was
granted.  Or so goes the version of the story I've seen:
somewhere there's a copy of the patent documents with his
signature and the handwritten statement "placed in the
public domain, <date>".

....I just checked Bach, Leffler, and the Jargon file;
Thompson&Pike of course has the footnote, but it doesn't
mention the PD-ness; I must've seen it in a Usenet posting;
that's sort of like hearsay evidence from Richard Nixon...

>bit is protected by a United States patent.  It happens that the owner
>of the patent (AT&T, not DMR, for all practical purposes), has decided
>to "let" the patent, which means, effectively, that they grant a

And I heard it was Ritchie's, not AT&T's (as long
as we're being fast and loose).

				--Blair
				  "I meant 'Positively Darling.'
				   What did you think I meant?"