From: tytso@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Theodore Ts'o) Subject: Re: BSD Unix aka Freedom is a myth.... Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 02:46:20 GMT
From: lfoard@Turing.ORG (Lawrence C. Foard)
Date: 22 Jul 92 21:59:06 GMT
I'm somewhat concerned about the possibility that some Linux developers
might be familiar with AT&T code. For legal reasons it might be best
to make sure that all Linux kernel code is developed by people with
no prior experience with AT&T code.
Actually, what's really important is whether or not Linux developers had
access to AT&T code under a source license which contains the words
"methods and concepts". What "methods and concepts" says is that the
licensor owns the "methods and concepts" used in the source code as
intellectual property, and if you ever write code that uses those same
"methods and concepts", the licensor owns it.
Fortunately for me, MIT as an institution refuses to sign _any_ license
which contains a "methods and concepts" clause. You may want to check
the agreements you or your company have signed to see if they have that
deadly clause.
It may also good idea to make sure we don't use any significant pieces
of code from the BSD networking release, just to be sure, although I
doubt Linux is under any serious threat, since it isn't a commercial OS.
- Ted
P.S. Food for thought: apparently IBM holds a patent of emulating the
'Tab' character on a VDT screen. IBM normally doesn't enforce it,
although apparently Microsoft paid a fair amount of money to IBM to
settle patent enfringements of this nature.
Also, AT&T owns the patent on backing store, and was attempting to
collect $25 for each X server that used backing store. MIT (on behalf
of the X consortium) is currently fighting AT&T in court on this issue.
Sigh.... what else did you expect from a company whose logo is the Death
Star? :-)
P.P.S. Insert standard disclaimer: the views in this letter are my own,
and do not represent the opinions of MIT or its management. Also, I am
Computer Scientist, not a Lawyer, so what I write should not be taken as
legal counsel. I do occasionally play one on TV, though. :-)