*BSD News Article 2942


Return to BSD News archive

Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!sgiblab!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!news
From: merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: UNIGRAM's article on the USL-BSDI suit
Message-ID: <l7k4u1INNgbc@neuro.usc.edu>
Date: 1 Aug 92 04:32:01 GMT
References: <1992Aug1.020513.14170@plts.uucp>
Sender: merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin)
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 56
NNTP-Posting-Host: neuro.usc.edu

In article <> tal@plts.uucp (Tom Limoncelli) writes:
>The week before last, BSDI put the full text of Unix System Labs' 
>initial complaint (but not the expanded suit) on UUNet, 
>ostensibly because so many people were asking to see the exact 
>wording - see front page. As might be expected, the move has 
>stirred up a hornet's nest of academic fear and loathing against 
>USL and has created a cadre of naive tech weinees ready to form a 
>lynch mob. For all their thousands of lines of protests, however, 
>no one has flat out denied USL's intellectual property rights. 
>USL's suit asks the courts to oblige UC Berkeley to abide by its 
>license from USL. 

Perhaps the people at UNIGRAM don't understand what they have been
reading?  I clearly denied all of AT&T's supposed claims including:

   o  AT&T's claimed trademark on UNIX
   o  AT&T's claimed copyright on 4.3BSD-NET2
   o  AT&T's claimed patents in 4.3BSD-NET2
   o  AT&T's claimed trade secrets in 4.3BSD-NET2

My principal point was that AT&T's long failure to enforce any of
it's supposed intellectual property rights in the 4.3BSD-NET1 and
4.3BSD-NET2 codes transfered these claims into the public domain.

Given the free public release of the source codes for 4.3BSD-NET2 
and the common use of the term UNIX to describe both AT&T and non
AT&T systems there is no question AT&T long ago surrendered their
interest in the source code for 'Berkeley UNIX' and the term UNIX.

As far as being a "tech weinee (sic)" -- well, judge for yourself:

  M.S. Management of Information Systems, Claremont Grad School, 1985
  M.S. Biology, University of Southern California, 1991
  Ph.D. Neuroscience, University of Southern California, In Progress

  1984-85  Manager--Computer Systems, Korn Ferry International
  1985-86  Manager--Academic Computing, San Diego State University
  1986-87  Manager--Scientific Computing, Eli Lilly
  1986-92  Faculty Member, MS/MIS Program, West Coast University
  1987-92  Grad Fellow, Neurobiology, University of Southern California

I don't suppose anyone from UNIGRAM would care to comment here and/or
accept a reply for publication in their 'journal.'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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

Telephone:  (213)740-3406
FAX:        (213)746-2863
------------------------------------------------------------------------------