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Xref: sserve gnu.misc.discuss:6151 comp.org.eff.talk:8963 comp.unix.bsd:4648 comp.os.mach:2082 misc.int-property:483 Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!virtualnews.nyu.edu!brnstnd From: brnstnd@nyu.edu (D. J. Bernstein) Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,comp.org.eff.talk,comp.unix.bsd,comp.os.mach,misc.int-property,alt.suit.att-bsdi Subject: Re: AT&T Long Distance Boycott (was: BNR2SS, Mach, and The Lawsuit) Message-ID: <5578.Sep623.45.5992@virtualnews.nyu.edu> Date: 6 Sep 92 23:45:59 GMT References: <EDWI5ZL@taronga.com> <1992Sep2.220141.17026@nntp.hut.fi> <1992Sep4.234429.18294@newsgate.sps.mot.com> Organization: IR Lines: 29 In article <1992Sep4.234429.18294@newsgate.sps.mot.com> dichter@chdasic.sps.mot.com (Carl Dichter) writes: > Actually, NET2 was the first release from CSRG (the BSD people) that did not > require a license from ATT/USL. False. Unless the folks who control gatekeeper.dec.com have done something stupid recently, you can still pick up the Net/1 release from there. Guess what? Net/1 came before Net/2. (This will be a thorn in AT&T's side: they've lost their opportunity to attack those pieces of Net/2 which were already published in Net/1.) > BTW: If software patents were the de-facto mechanism for protecting > software intellectual property back in the 70s-- I don't this action > (suit) would have happened. Reality check: AT&T *did* patent the setuid bit. So what are you talking about? The issues here are copyright and perhaps trade secret. Patent is basically irrelevant because UNIX was hardly an invention. It was just a very sensible combination of old techniques. > how the hell can someone know what is ok to disclose and > what is not ok? This is, in principle, easy: if you are under contract not to disclose what you read from AT&T code, and you read AT&T code, then you know it's not okay to disclose it. Trade secret basically formalizes this area of law: it provides for more severe penalties, but nullifies nondisclosure agreements after some period of time defined by case law. ---Dan