Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 10:34:04 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: dennis@etinc.com (dennis) Cc: sef@Kithrup.COM, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SVR4.2MP source code has become available recently? Message-ID: <199707281734.KAA01313@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <3.0.32.19970727215623.00b1fa00@etinc.com> from "dennis" at Jul 27, 97 09:56:28 pm
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> >No. Under no circumstances should you use it as a reference. This is > >dangerous. > > > >Unless, of course, you don't want to do any FreeBSD development, or, if > >you do, you want to get yourself and/or Jordan Hubbard sued for some > >intellectual property violation (e.g., copyright or trade secret). > > > HAHAHA > > This is the joke of modern software "non-disclosure". Do you really > think that Jordan is worth enough for SCO to deal with suing? USL thought so, when they sent a "cease and desist" letter to all of the various principle developers in the BSD camps when they went after UCB for Net/2. Also, consider that beating Jordan up legally is a lot easier than beating up, say, MIT. And a decision against Jordan, if he appealed it and lost again, would be binding against MIT. They'd have to assume that MIT wouldn't jump in with Amicus Curie, and that Jordan would be stupid enough to not seek outside help (Jordan's not that dumb). But yes, he would be an attractive target of oportunity. > Or any other individual or small company? Yes, as the other people who got the letters can attest. As I can attest, when I marched down to Mike DeFazio's office (then VP in charge of Novell USG) and fought tooth and nail, risking livelihood and life savings, and dragging Ray Noorda into the fray, to get them to drop the damn lawsuit. > I love it when a little ISP tells me they will sign a ND if we > give them source...thats all I need, a bunch of servers and some > modem pools in Moosebreath Montana...which is exactly what I'll > get if I have to sue them. The issue here is "due dilligence". You would have to sue *anyone* who disclosed, period, to show that you were protecting your trade secrets. Otherwise you lose them. The issue as to whether or not USL had trade secrets was much more easily proven against a small company with little capitol; it was no wonder that BSDI dragged UCB into the fray by claiming them as path-of-disclosure. > Another interesting issue is that states and universities are exempt > from many copyright infringement type suits (I forget the exact wording), > so giving source to a university is like putting it in skywriting......I > doubt if SCO is that stupid, unless they are hoping that some major concern > blossoms as a result so that they would have someone worth suing. > They know that in todays world if a university has it, the rest of the world > will have it soon. You can't sue Cornell because some freshman puts > a tarball on the internet "by accident". This is wrong. The wording you are looking for is "fair use". Patents are allowed to be used for research purposes. As far as copyrights are concerned, "fair use" only applies to excerpting the material for educational purposes, and not to providing it in any form for any other reason. BTW: fair use applies equally well to commercial businesses with internal training programs, or who wish to use the information as example or whatever else in a board meeting. As far as university disclosure: a university is just as subject to the terms of a license contract as any other legal entity which enters into the contract. The only potential difference for a university is it's governmental ties. Which is why you (or any sane vendor) sites DFARS rights restrictions in their copyright notice, and again in their license agreement. Contact the SPA for more information; I've had to research this subject in incredible detail for two small software companies, and the SPA has all of the information required. Regards, Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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