[TUHS] Is OpenText Corporation the Current System V Copyright Holder?

[Warner Losh]

On Wed, Mar 13, 2024, 8:14 PM Marc Rochkind <mrochkind at gmail.com> wrote:

> Don't know the answer to your question, but last I knew the trademark (not
> the copyright) was transferred to The Open Group. They came up with a set
> of rules for what UNIX is and, as I understand it, for example, Linux is
> not a UNIX-like system, it is a UNIX system.
>

Only some distributions... only a few have gone to the hassle of being
certified... and usually on only on or two architectures.

(The Open Group isn't interested in implementations of the UNIX standard,
> only the standard itself.)
>
> Things change, and my information is a few years old. For all I know Elon
> Musk owns it all now. ;-)
>

Last I checked, no.

Of course by that measure, Unix isn't UNIX anymore...

Warner

Marc
>
> On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 6:34 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:
>
>> Did some reading today, curious on the current state of things with
>> AT&T's UNIX copyright genealogy.  The series of events as I understand it
>> are:
>>
>> AT&T partners with Novell for the Univel initiative.
>>
>> Novell then acquires System V and USL from AT&T.
>>
>> Novell sells UNIX System V's source to SCO, but as the courts have ruled,
>> not the copyright.
>>
>> Novell gets purchased by Microfocus.
>>
>> Microfocus gets purchased by OpenText Corporation.
>>
>> Does this make OpenText the current copyright holders of the commercial
>> UNIX line from AT&T.
>>
>> What got me looking a bit closer into this is curiosity regarding how the
>> opening of Solaris and the CDDL may impact publication of UNIX code between
>> System III and SVR4.  I then felt the need to refresh on who might be the
>> current copyright holder and this is where the trail has lead me.
>>
>> My understanding too is that Sun's release under the CDDL set the
>> precedent that other sub-licencees of System V codebases are also at
>> liberty to relicense their codebases, but this may be reading too far into
>> it.  There's also the concern that the ghost of SCO will continue to punish
>> anyone else who tries with costly-but-doomed-to-fail litigation.  Have
>> there been any happenings lately with regards to getting AT&T UNIX
>> post-PDP-11 opened up more in the world?  Reading up a bit on OpenText's
>> business, they don't seem like they're invested in the OS world, seems that
>> their primary sector is content management.  Granted, there's certainly
>> under-the-radar trading of bits and pieces, but it would be nice to have
>> some more certainty about what can happen out in the open.
>>
>> - Matt G.
>>
>
>
> --
> *My new email address is mrochkind at gmail.com <mrochkind at gmail.com>*
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/attachments/20240313/d015c0ae/attachment.htm>