Unix IP recap
Message ID: 241466
Posted By: karl_w_lewis
Posted On: 2005-03-01 09:18:00
Subject: UNIX IP Recap...
Recs: 0
So, there is no copyrighted UNIX code in Linux. But, since the SCOundrels mentioned it... let's review the situation briefly.
1) Originally UNIX code was not copyrighted - it was held as a Trade Secret. Eventually, the UNIX codebase lost that protection because AT&T failed to maintain the proper controls over who had access to those secrets. (It is a simple notion that if the information is publicly available it is [by definition] not a secret any longer.)
2) When AT&T moved to copyright their UNIX code, and attempted to enforce those copyrights in a [disasterous] lawsuit against The California Board of Regents in the infamous BSD case, the judge told AT&T that he doubted that the AT&T copyrights could be shown to be valid. Both parties, in an agreement that had been sealed until just recently, agreed that AT&T AND ITS SUCCESSORS would not attempt to enforce those non-existant copyrights against any party. The code was in effect in the public domain, but neither party announced that fact.
3) The SCOundrels from Lindon, Utah, after buying the Licensing business from The Santa Cruz Operation decided that enough time had passed that no one would remember, and that the facts in points one and two above were sufficently cloudy that they could attempt to shake the world down over a UNIX work-alike product called Linux. They blustered and calimed that they were going to sue BSD again, (as if the agreement did not SPECIFICALLY PROHIBIT THAT), and they filed a flurry of lawsuits against a number of enormous companies, in hope, seemingly of having their worthless little crap company purchased for hundreds of times more than it could possibly be worth.
4) Lately, the SCOundrels have claimed that code that IBM wrote, itself, or licensed from *other* parties, is now under the SCOundrels' control because... well because Darl the mouth McBride and Ralph the-thieving-scum-bag Yarro want it to be that way.
5) Failing that, the SCOundrels seem to have been running a stock kiting scam that failed when their auditors refused to signoff on their books that had been in the oven a little bit past - GB&D, (Golden Brown and Delicious).
6) Now the bagholders prop the stock price up just to avoid having to acknowledge the COMPLETE loss of their [stupid] doomed "investment."
7) Betting now runs wildly in favor of the principals in this fiaSCO doing time in Club Fed.
8) The SCOundrels' paided shills are still claiming otherwise, seemingly in hopes that if it is repeated loudly and often enough it will "magically" true.
KWL
So, ah, ledite/ttaj, how would you say this "investment" has worked out for anyone who *ever* followed your advice to buy this stock?
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The text of this Yahoo Message Board post has been licensed for
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Posted By: karl_w_lewis
Posted On: 2005-03-01 09:18:00
Subject: UNIX IP Recap...
Recs: 0
So, there is no copyrighted UNIX code in Linux. But, since the SCOundrels mentioned it... let's review the situation briefly.
1) Originally UNIX code was not copyrighted - it was held as a Trade Secret. Eventually, the UNIX codebase lost that protection because AT&T failed to maintain the proper controls over who had access to those secrets. (It is a simple notion that if the information is publicly available it is [by definition] not a secret any longer.)
2) When AT&T moved to copyright their UNIX code, and attempted to enforce those copyrights in a [disasterous] lawsuit against The California Board of Regents in the infamous BSD case, the judge told AT&T that he doubted that the AT&T copyrights could be shown to be valid. Both parties, in an agreement that had been sealed until just recently, agreed that AT&T AND ITS SUCCESSORS would not attempt to enforce those non-existant copyrights against any party. The code was in effect in the public domain, but neither party announced that fact.
3) The SCOundrels from Lindon, Utah, after buying the Licensing business from The Santa Cruz Operation decided that enough time had passed that no one would remember, and that the facts in points one and two above were sufficently cloudy that they could attempt to shake the world down over a UNIX work-alike product called Linux. They blustered and calimed that they were going to sue BSD again, (as if the agreement did not SPECIFICALLY PROHIBIT THAT), and they filed a flurry of lawsuits against a number of enormous companies, in hope, seemingly of having their worthless little crap company purchased for hundreds of times more than it could possibly be worth.
4) Lately, the SCOundrels have claimed that code that IBM wrote, itself, or licensed from *other* parties, is now under the SCOundrels' control because... well because Darl the mouth McBride and Ralph the-thieving-scum-bag Yarro want it to be that way.
5) Failing that, the SCOundrels seem to have been running a stock kiting scam that failed when their auditors refused to signoff on their books that had been in the oven a little bit past - GB&D, (Golden Brown and Delicious).
6) Now the bagholders prop the stock price up just to avoid having to acknowledge the COMPLETE loss of their [stupid] doomed "investment."
7) Betting now runs wildly in favor of the principals in this fiaSCO doing time in Club Fed.
8) The SCOundrels' paided shills are still claiming otherwise, seemingly in hopes that if it is repeated loudly and often enough it will "magically" true.
KWL
So, ah, ledite/ttaj, how would you say this "investment" has worked out for anyone who *ever* followed your advice to buy this stock?
------------------------------------------------------------
The text of this Yahoo Message Board post has been licensed for
copying and distribution by the Yahoo Message Board user
"karl_w_lewis" under the following license:
License: CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike v2.0
------------------------------------------------------------