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From: adam@soda.berkeley.edu (Adam J Richter)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Copyright infringement added to AT&T suit?
Date: 30 Jul 1992 21:22:25 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 39
Message-ID: <159mihINNbfe@agate.berkeley.edu>
References: <9207231306.AA06854@GRANNY.CS.NYU.EDU> <4442@hq.hq.af.mil> <159ld6INNmmu@darkstar.UCSC.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu
On Tuesday, I had a telephone conversation with Larry Lankel
of USL yesterday. Larry told me that AT&T is indeed the majority
shareholder of USL. Therefore, it is reasonable to pressure
AT&T to change USL's actions.
Larry claimed that USL has added copyright infringement
to the lawsuit and that USL has found "specific and substantive"
sections of code that "were copied or could not have been written
without looking at the [USL] source code." However, Larry also told
me that USL will not reveal which sections of the BSD Net 2 code that
it claims to be able to restrict.
It seems to me that even if the the dubious claim that a section
of code could not have been written without looking at the original were
found to be true that that would necessarily establish copyright
infringement. For example, either of the following might be defenses
against such a copyright infringement claim:
1. "We had to look at the code to copy some of
the ideas, but we did not copy the expression."
2. "The expression and functionality were inseparably
interwined and there was only a limited number of
ways to implement this functionality."
I am not a lawyer. This is just my layman's understanding of
the law; it is not legal advice. For legal advice, consult a lawyer.
If some enterprising person would like to make AT&T's filings
available for anonymous FTP, the copy department of the US district
court in New Jersey can be reached at (201) 645-4565 until 4:30pm on
weekdays.
--
Adam J. Richter 409 Evelyn Avenue, Apt. 312
richter@cerf.net Albany, CA 94706
(510)528-3209
Another member of the League for Programming Freedom (league@prep.ai.mit.edu).