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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!mips!mips!sdd.hp.com!usc!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!eff!world!bzs
From: bzs@ussr.std.com (Barry Shein)
Subject: Re: AT&T vs. BSDI --> 4.3BSD-NET2 distribution requires AT&T license!!!
In-Reply-To: bzs@ussr.std.com's message of Mon, 3 Aug 1992 20:54:29 GMT
Message-ID: <BZS.92Aug4160917@ussr.std.com>
Sender: usenet@world.std.com (Mr USENET himself)
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Organization: The World
References: <1992Jul30.173606.28357@kas.helios.mn.org>
<1992Aug3.103210.4792@ohm.york.ac.uk> <BZS.92Aug3155429@ussr.std.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1992 21:09:17 GMT
Lines: 27
I wrote...
>Being as there are copyright claims I would assume that AT&T will
>demand international protection under the Berne Convention (ca. 1978).
It has come to my attention that the US was not signatory to the Berne
convention until 1986 so it is almost certainly irrelevant to the
matters at hand.
What occurred in 1978 was the US Copyright Act of 1978 (which I
believe was actually signed into law in 1979 but may have been made
retroactive), this changed several aspects of US copyright law (e.g.
length of protection) but probably nothing of particular interest to
this case (or, put better, I don't know of any which isn't saying all
that much given that one would have to be both expert in that specific
act and all the facts of the case to really apply it, but nothing that
jumps right out at me.)
But if I were in a country other than the US I would hardly feel
complacent over the implications of this suit, that would be
foolhardy. And that was the point.
--
-Barry Shein
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