27 Jun
1996
27 Jun
'96
9:02 a.m.
All,
I just received a very pleasing letter from Dion L. Johnson II, the
Product Manager at SCO, about the legal status of the PDP UNIXs. I've included
his email and my response below. If I can get a legally authorative statement
on paper from SCO, I'll pass it on to you all, especially Steven Schultz.
Not that I wan't to sound pessimistic, but there are several
miles between "would not mind", and "legally allowed".
From what I read into his letter, he's saying that
he don't think
SCO would take legal actions against us, but at the same time
they
won't probably make it officially legal.
And your reply, hoping that they'll say that "Unix is legally owned by
SCO, but freely distributable", is really reaching for the sky... :-)
Anyway, keep trying, it would be very nice if they really did write
such a paper.
Johnny
27 Jun
27 Jun
11:07 p.m.
New subject: Good News re PDP Unix Licensing
In atricle by Johnny Billquist konsult:
I know, but I really don't want to try to work under a `head in the sand'
approach from SCO. At the very least I'd like official blessing to pass
on old UNIXes to people who need/want them. I know getting SCO to allow
them to be freely redistributable is a pipe dream, but perhaps there's
some middle ground they would be willing to move to.
I'll keep you all informed of any progress with SCO.
Cheers,
Warren
I just received a very pleasing letter from Dion
L. Johnson II, the
Product Manager at SCO, about the legal status of the PDP UNIXs.
Not that I wan't to sound pessimistic, but there are several
miles between "would not mind", and "legally allowed".
From what I read into his letter, he's saying that he don't think
SCO would take legal actions against us, but at the same time they
won't probably make it officially legal.
And your reply, hoping that they'll say that "Unix is legally owned by
SCO, but freely distributable", is really reaching for the sky... :-) From "Steven M. Schultz"
<sms(a)wlv.iipo.gtegsc.com> Fri Jun 28 02:05:17 1996
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Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 09:05:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Steven M. Schultz" <sms(a)wlv.iipo.gtegsc.com>
Message-Id: <199606271605.JAA10306(a)wlv.iipo.gtegsc.com>
To: oldunix(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au, wkt(a)csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au
Subject: Re: Good News re PDP Unix Licensing
Warren, et al -
I just received a very pleasing letter from Dion L.
Johnson II, the
Product Manager at SCO, about the legal status of the PDP UNIXs. I've included
his email and my response below. If I can get a legally authorative statement
on paper from SCO, I'll pass it on to you all, especially Steven Schultz.
Warren
Wow. I never even dreamed that such a thing would happen - how times
(or people) have changed over time. Very welcome news indeed!
In particular, you said that ``SCO would cheerfully
encourage them to run UNIX
on these antiques without any payment to us''. Does this mean I can legally
distribute the source code to the PDP versions of UNIX, and to anybody? or
just to people who own PDP-11s. There are PDP-11 emulators available, so
it is conceivable that people who don't even have a real PDP-11 might like
to try UNIX out on these emulators. If to anybody, then I assume this means
the source is legally owned by SCO but freely distributable?
I submit that running an emulator does not demonstrate the proper
degree of obsession or investment (financial as well as emotional) with
``antiques''. No investment in actual old hardware is involved when
running an emulator. That is, I believe, what SCO is referring
to when mention is made of ``run UNIX on these antiques''. Not a new
fangled Pentium Pro running an emulator but an honest to DEC PDP-11
and all the dealing with 9-track (or TK-25, etc) peripherals and
front panel or console ODT banging which that entails.
Basically I think it would be a 'good thing' to honor the "spirit" of
Dion's mail item as well as the "letter" of it.
Ummm - not freely redistributable but distributable to those who can
at least make some sort of case that they do own a PDP-11 capable of
running UNIX. Granted, "proving" this over the net might be difficult
but the effort should at least, I think, be made in an attempt to
reciprocate SCO's spirit.
Steven Schultz
sms(a)wlv.iipo.gtegsc.com, sms(a)moe.2bsd.com
From Tom I Helbekkmo <tih(a)Hamartun.Priv.NO> Sat
Jun 29 21:48:08 1996
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Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 11:48:08 +0000 (GMT)
From: Tom I Helbekkmo <tih(a)Hamartun.Priv.NO>
To: Warren Toomey <wkt(a)csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au>
cc: PDP Unix Preservation <oldunix(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au>
Subject: Re: Good News re PDP Unix Licensing
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On Fri, 28 Jun 1996, Warren Toomey wrote:
I know, but I really don't want to try to work
under a `head in the sand'
approach from SCO. At the very least I'd like official blessing to pass
on old UNIXes to people who need/want them. I know getting SCO to allow
them to be freely redistributable is a pipe dream, but perhaps there's
some middle ground they would be willing to move to.
Is there really any good reason for them to object to the distribution
of UNIXes prior to SVR1? Could there possibly be anything at all in
V7 and earlier that could in any way be damaging to SCO (or anyone
else who might buy UNIX from SCO) if it were freely distributed? If
I'm right in assuming that it couldn't possibly make a difference to
their bottom line, perhaps SCO could be convinced to formally release
these oldest versions of UNIX?
Does anyone know, by the way, what's happening with the Lions
commentaries? They're at the top of my "stuff I want to read" list,
and have been for quite some time now!
-tih
--
Tom Ivar Helbekkmo
tih(a)Hamartun.Priv.NO
10164
days inactive
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