*BSD News Article 88592


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From: j@ida.interface-business.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.misc
Subject: Re: GPL
Date: 7 Feb 1997 17:31:58 GMT
Organization: interface business GmbH, Dresden
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Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de (Joerg Wunsch)
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Timothy Watson <tmwatson@umich.edu> wrote:

> Remember BSD - Lite? AT&T still OWNED the source code, no matter how
> widely it had been *published*, and therefore the use of
> its proprietary code was restricted when it was sold to Novell.

AT&T still *claimed* to own it.  The case has never been decided, you
should no.  It has simply been laid down -- with differing opinions on
all sides, but a commonly accepted compromise (that the 4.4BSD-Lite
collection was considered freely redistributable).

So even in this case, you see that it's almost pointless to try
fighting such an issue in court.  Remember, AT&T very clearly violated
the BSD license, in that they did not mention the Regents of the
University of California, as it was required by the license.  Even
though this seems to be a very clear case, it was not decided.

Now go figure about your chances to fight the GPL in court, and even
in an international one as you now think.

-- 
J"org Wunsch					       Unix support engineer
joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de       http://www.interface-business.de/~j