Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 13:32:26 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>, Gianmarco Giovannelli <gmarco@scotty.masternet.it> Cc: oleg@ogurok.com, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Lawsuit with Novel Message-ID: <19990223133226.L93492@lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <199902230234.TAA13718@usr08.primenet.com>; from Terry Lambert on Tue, Feb 23, 1999 at 02:34:15AM %2B0000 References: <4.1.19990222191438.009d3f00@194.184.65.4> <199902230234.TAA13718@usr08.primenet.com>
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On Tuesday, 23 February 1999 at 2:34:15 +0000, Terry Lambert wrote: >>> I heard about some lawsuit between FreeBSD and Novel. What was this about? >>> Any info on web? Just personal curiousity. Thank you. >> >> "In 1992, AT&T's subsidiary USL (UNIX System Labs) filled a lawsuit against >> Berkeley Software Development Inc. (BSDI), the manufacteur of the BSD/386 >> and (later) BSD/OS operating systems, for alleged distribution of AT&T >> source code in violation of license agreements. They subsequently extended >> the case to University of California at Berkeley." (The Complete FreeBSD, >> Lehey) > > BSDI = Berekeley Software Design, Inc. Oops. Thanks for picking up this one. > Novel = Novell This one isn't mine. > As part of this, files from several critical subsystems were deemed > "tainted", and removed from BSD 4.4 prior to distribution. > > UCB subsequently removed the code from distribution, and requested > that others remove the code as well. Few people complied, since (1) > the license is irrevocable, and (2) USL did not press the matter, > probably for fear of someone who wouldn't settle would take up the > banner. The code is still available from gatekeeper.dec.com, among > other FTP archives. Dr. Dobbs is also sitting on what I suspect is quite a pile of "386BSD 1.0" CD-ROMs, which are Net/2 based. They came out in late 1994. > The principles associated with 386BSD, FreeBSD, and NetBSD were not > initially given the same deal as BSDI. Instead, they were > individually served with "Cease And Desist" orders. Are you sure Bill Jolitz got one? Dr. Dobbs were still actively marketing their CD in late 1995. >> They worked hard to release the new version, even because the 4.4BSD was >> not fully complete at this time. FreeBSD version 2.0 was the first relase >> based on the 4.4BSD and was released in December 1994. > > It is my opinion that it was Novell/USG's opinion at the time that the > non-BSDI Net/2 based projects would be unable to recreate the supposedly > "tainted" files, and thus not threaten the Novell/USG UNIX royalty > monopoly. It is my opinion that the files removed were removed not for > their content, but for their criticality. I don't understand what you're trying to say here. They had the files in question, just as BSDI did. Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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