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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!news.hawaii.edu!ames!olivea!uunet!think.com!unixland!rmkhome!rmk From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: AT&T sues BSDI Message-ID: <9208041705.14@rmkhome.UUCP> Date: 4 Aug 92 22:05:10 GMT References: <118@netwrk.UUCP> <1992Jul27.140005.23776@ryptyde.cts.com> <jim.712278251@piggy> <150209@mbf.UUCP> <jim.712885425@oinker> Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) Organization: The Man With Ten Cats Lines: 32 In article <jim.712885425@oinker> jim@ferkel.ucsb.edu (Jim Lick) writes: >In <150209@mbf.UUCP> fmt@mbf.UUCP (Mike Trimberger) writes: >>I myself am using _Coherent_ from Mark Williams Corp. And the Co where >>I work is also looking into it (as soon as they get networking). Actually >>most of our customers could use Coherent as is exists today - and no $'s >>go into ATT pockets. The only problem is that MWC doesn't disclose any >>of their source. But for $99, what do you expect. > >Unfortunately, I am also boycotting Mark Williams Corp. as they hold a >patent on the method of swapping bytes for translation between devices >of different endians. I was previously a Coherent owner until their >patent was approved. I spoke with someone at Mark Williams about this. Coherent has been ported to at least four platforms. 68000, 80x86, Z8000, and PDP11. Their patent is for a method that allows them to crossmount file systems between all the architectures that they support. The patent was applied for back in the early 80's, after AT&T forced them into showing them source code. Dennis Ritchie made the final decision that it was AT&T free. However, they lost a very large account because AT&T had been loudly claiming that Mark Williams pirated UNIX source code. Perhaps the patent filing could be called justifiable paranoia. >If this lawsuit is successful (for USL) then the only viable OS I would >use is Linux. At least until USL gets around to squashing it too. And if someone discovers in court that the GNU Copyleft has more teeth than it seems to, then I guess you won't be able to use Linux, either. -- Rick Kelly rmk@rmkhome.UUCP unixland!rmkhome!rmk rmk@frog.UUCP