*BSD News Article 8967


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: AT&T/USL CD-ROM Review Process
Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!think.com!unixland!rmkhome!rmk
From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 03:42:10 GMT
Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Message-ID: <9212152242.13@rmkhome.UUCP>
References: <1992Dec14.165913.6896@fcom.cc.utah.edu> <1992Dec14.181906.8513@nrao.edu>
Lines: 24

In article <1992Dec14.181906.8513@nrao.edu> cflatter@nrao.edu writes:
>In article 6896@fcom.cc.utah.edu, terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C) writes:
>>Second, Linux is arguably more like SVR3 (and by extension SVR4) than
>>386BSD; this, I believe, puts it in more danger of censure.  The thing
>>that has protected Linux so far is its international (non-US) origin.
>>This is not something USL has to worry about forever, it's simply an
>>inconvenience to prosecution, not a barrier.  If a judgement were given
>>regarding copyright infringement by Linux against USL's materials, it
>>wouldn't matter that the judgement occurred in the US; Linus' government
>>would be forced by the Berne convention to uphold the judgement.
>
>Linux is in less danger of censure than 386BSD since Linux was developed
>from scratch without the use of code that is potentially contaminated by
>code covered by a USL license.  Although Linux is similar to System V at
>the interface level its kernel design is quite different.


Of course, the AT&T lawyers can turn around and say that even though Linus
didn't have any exposure to AT&T sources, that other contributers might
have.

-- 

Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	unixland!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP