*BSD News Article 2488


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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!usc!news
From: merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd,alt.suit.att-bsdi
Subject: Keeping the AT&T discussion here (was: New group alt.suit.att-bsdi)
Date: 25 Jul 1992 11:58:23 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
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Sender: merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin)
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References: <14s61qINN8da@cs.widener.edu>
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>I created alt.suit.att-bsdi for ongoing discussion related to the suit
>between AT&T and BSDI.  For sanity's sake, could it please be moved there?

Why don't you set your newsreader to ignore anything with 'AT&T' or
'suit' or 'license' in the subject line -- and leave the rest of the
discussion in this newsgroup -- so people new to 386BSD and BSD/386
will have a clue about how AT&T/USL is trying to limit distribution
of 4.3BSD-NET2 derived source codes.  Moreover, I suspect this kind
of discussion will markedly slow down until there is substantial new
news available about the BSDI/AT&T lawsuit; at which point it would
seem to me perhaps maybe relevant for users to renew the discussion.

Frankly, if you want to do what you propose to do -- the correct way
would seem to be to call for a vote -- and if the vote runs against
discussing the AT&T lawsuit in the current (or future) BSD newsgroup
then I am certain everyone would be happy to go along with you.  The
alternative of simply creating a new newsgroup and asking the people
who have an individual interest in the matter -- and -- an interest
in making new people aware of the seriousness of the matter seems to
me to make it inappropriate to imply the discussion should be moved
elsewhere to save a few readers the work of learning how to use their
newsreader to skip a few headers.

My vote would be to keep the discussion in the forum where it is
likely to alert many people who could be affected by the result.
But, I would second your feeling that we should certainly reduce
the number of new postings on this matter until some substantial
new information is available or until someone has some new point
to make which has not been previously discussed.

Best Regards, AJ

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Alexander-James Annala
Principal Investigator
Neuroscience Image Analysis Network
HEDCO Neuroscience Building, Fifth Floor
University of Southern California
University Park
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520
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