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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!mel.dit.csiro.au!wanda.mel.dit.CSIRO.AU!smart From: smart@wanda.mel.dit.CSIRO.AU (Robert Smart) Subject: Re: AT&T vs. BSDI --> 4.3BSD-NET2 distribution requires AT&T license!!! Message-ID: <1992Jul21.104627.3353@mel.dit.csiro.au> Keywords: AT&T 'Death Star' rises over BSDI's horizon [Tel. 1-800-800-4BSD Sender: news@mel.dit.csiro.au Organization: CSIRO, Division of Information Technology, Melbourne References: <l6nibgINNje6@neuro.usc.edu> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 10:46:27 GMT Lines: 13 Many years ago I heard a talk by an AT&T employee, Denis Ritchie, in which he said that the objective in distributing unix free to universities was so that people could learn about the operating system ideas contained therein and apply them to commercial operating systems (which unix then wasn't). It does not seem fair to then claim that everybody who has seen those ideas is contaminated and can't apply them. It is ridiculous to claim that by licensing source free to every place where future inventors are likely to be you have acquired protection of that source which is better than a patent! It doesn't even have a time limit or have to conform to the patent offices strict (if often misapplied) standards. This is insanity. Surely this will be thrown out of court. Bob Smart