From: fortony@sonne.cso.uiuc.edu Subject: Re: BSD Unix aka Freedom is a myth.... Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 06:18:46 GMT
lfoard@Turing.ORG (Lawrence C. Foard) writes:
>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.
I suspect the court will see the complete invalidity of AT&T's side
of this affair. If you can sue someone and win on the ground that
they *may have* *seen* something you were doing, then our legal
system is completely broken.
The burden of proof rests with the accuser. It's going to be hard for
AT&T to prove that anyone has definitively used their code, especially
since the ideas behind the code have been freeware taught by professors
at colleges around the globe for over ten years now. In the case of
Linux, which was written from scratch, they would find the task utterly
impossible.
>The unfortunite thing is that money makes right in court. Atleast Linux
>is an international effort and may be harder for AT&T to stop.
That's a pretty cynical view. I hope you're wrong -- I suspect that
law makes right in court {except, perhaps, at the circus that is the
Bush supreme court}.
>--
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-- a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Felix Sebastian Ortony fortony@murphy.gis.uiuc.edu