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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!kithrup!sef From: sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan) Subject: Re: AT&T sues BSDI Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd. Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 21:06:54 GMT Message-ID: <1992Jul25.210654.2518@kithrup.COM> Keywords: BSDI AT&T References: <83@ampr.ab.ca> <1992Jul23.173415.11587@nebulus.ca> <1992Jul25.014246.11533@klic.rain.com> Lines: 56 In article <1992Jul25.014246.11533@klic.rain.com> keithl@klic.rain.com (Keith Lofstrom) writes: >dennis@nebulus.ca (Dennis S. Breckenridge) [ and others ] write: >>Send your $1000.00 to BSDI and get a source license now. >I just did so. There are a number of reasons why this is a good idea: Alternatively, you could grab a copy of 386BSD, use that, and distribute as many copies as possible to your friends. Since there is no difference between what BSDI is doing and what the Jolitzes are doing, other than the fact that BSDI is chargning money, which, from the standpoint of the suit, is pretty irrelevant, having all those copies of 386BSD out there, which has been publicly announced and talked about as much as BSDI's product, without any move on USL's part to stop the distribution or use, helps BSDI. That is, because the two are the same, if there is any trade secret or copyright violation going on, USL would have to go after both, or lose its ability to protect its "trade secrets" or copyrights. Then, of course, you could send $1k to the Jolitzes instead of BSDI, and know that they could use the money a lot more than BSDI could, especially if USL *does* go after them. >2) BSDI could use the money. BSDI will do fine in the suit without the money, although it is true that they could always use more money. Who can't? The Jolitzes could, as well. You could also order a copy of Net/2 from CSRG, and *they* can use the money far more than BSDI can! >4) BSDI probably has investors. Other than the founderrs, I don't think so. Kolstad has either stated outright, or implied heavily, that there are none. Uhm, "self-financed company" were the words he used at the first BSDI BOF, I believe. >Buy a copy for yourself. Your friends. Your Mom. Your Dog. ;-) Buy a copy of Net/2 from CSRG instead, and get a copy of 386BSD. For yourself. Your friends. Your mom. Your Dog. ;-) As much as I dislike the suit between USL and BSDI, I hate seeing it turn into a bunch of advertisement for BSDI on the net. The same moral objectives can be accomplished by helping the Jolitzes, or running the BSD single-server available from CMU for Mach 3.0, or by merely distributing copies of the Net/2 tape, and any derivatives thereof, to as many people as possible. If you order it from CSRG, include a letter saying that you do not have a USL or AT&T source license, so that there will be something on record showing that USL permitted UCB to continue to distribute copies of the Net/2 tape to people or organizations without such. -- Sean Eric Fagan | "My psychiatrist says I have a messiah sef@kithrup.COM | complex. But I forgive him." -----------------+ -- Jim Carrey Any opinions expressed are my own, and generally unpopular with others.