I don't think it was pirated. I'm think it was a special license Ford Aero got due to the work with the USG. I sort of remember KSOS and if I'm correct that was a DoD funded effort for the Orange Book.  So it would make absolute sense that Ford Aero might have used the USG connections to convince AT&T to release it to them.  As I said, Al was very skittish about anything that might be misinterpreted by the Justice dept.  But if DoD was asking for it, Al could show the Jusitce -- "hey -- your people asked for it -- we were not selling it."

ᐧ

On Sat, May 20, 2023 at 3:03 PM Jon Forrest <nobozo@gmail.com> wrote:

On 5/20/2023 11:50 AM, Clem Cole wrote:
> Taking this off list.
>
> I've always wondered about that.  Thank you bad word choice -- but it
> was not officially released outside the Bell System.   Since Ford Aero
> had it, it must have been a very special license.

It was already there when I arrived so I don't know how it got there.
I doubt it was pirated.

> Was Ford Aero doing something on a Gvt bid when you were using it?

Yes. It was creating KSOS which Tom Ferrine has also mentioned on the
TUHS list. This was a "provably" secure version of Unix.

You might want to ask John Nagle. His email is probably
nagle@sitetruth.com, and his GitHub is https://github.com/John-Nagle.
He was there when I arrived and he was a key developer of KSOS.
If he doesn't know the answer then he might be able to refer you to
someone who does.

Jon