19 Mar
2003
19 Mar
'03
5:40 p.m.
Hi -
I received a mail item from Johnny Billquist but the fine folks
at Update.UU.SE don't seem to recognize that networks can be
subdivided and that _my_ portion has never sent or relayed spam
Hope Johnny doesn't mind the reply going here instead.
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
bqt(a)update.uu.se
(reason: 553 5.3.0 <bqt(a)update.uu.se>se>... SMTP from 64.32.150.18 blocked by
Update due to spam sent/relayed from this network;contact postmaster at Update.UU.SE for
details)
----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to tempo.update.uu.se.:
>> RCPT To:<bqt@update.uu.se>
<<< 553 5.3.0 <bqt(a)update.uu.se>se>... SMTP from 64.32.150.18 blocked by
Update due to spam sent/relayed from this network;contact postmaster at Update.UU.SE for
details
550 5.1.1 bqt(a)update.uu.se... User unknown
Hi!
I have a small question, which I hope you can clarify
for me. I'm in a
little argument with a person involved in NetBSD.
Ummm, I'm not a lawyer of course...
He claims that NetBSD is the oldest free BSD still
alive, which I reacted
to since it was my belief that 2BSD now is free.
But is 2BSD free? That I don't know. It is more free than it was
a long time ago but
This have resulted in the claim that Berkley is the
one that is
restricting 2BSD, which was news to me. Is this in any way correct? The
* Copyright (c) 1986 Regents of the University of California.
* All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement
* specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
That was the earlier version of the BSD license - when you had to have
a ATT/USL/BellLabs license in order to obtain BSD at all.
I am not sure I have a copy of the original UCB license but I think
part of it involved having a ATT/USL license.
The 'BSD' part of the UCB license permitted free sharing of the
UCB portions of the system. The questionable parts involved
the original ATT/USL code. If the current owners say that the original
(non-UCB) portions are free then that means the entire system is
free.
I believed that this was/is more or less the same as
the current BSD
license (except that it still have the clause that any software
incorporating code from BSD must say so).
At a later time the BSD license agreement added words about
redistributing the code with or without modification as long as
credit was given.
But appearantly this other guy is claiming that
Berkley hasn't let 2BSD
free at all.
I'm not sure UCB even knows what 2BSD is any more.
Can you clarify this for me, please? :-)
Does the current state of the Caldera/SCO/whatever license override
any existing licenses? THAT I do not know. If that is the case
then I would say that 2BSD is indeed free, on the other hand if people
are still legally constrained by the earlier license then 2BSD is
not totally free. Earlier versions of NetBSD would not be free
either because they contain "encumbered code" from the era when a
ATT/USL license was required.
I think it unlikely that anyone is going to send the 'software police'
out to kick down a person's door because they're running 2BSD - sounds
like that era is over at last. That's free enough for most people
I think.
Steve
20 Mar
20 Mar
12:08 a.m.
On Wednesday, 19 March 2003 at 9:40:30 -0800, Steven M. Schultz wrote:
After Caldera released the Ancient UNIX license last January, 2BSD
must be free, unless I'm missing something.
Right, but that's what Caldera released.
My understanding (and I'm pretty sure it's correct) is that it
replaces the old AT&T license for the specified products, including
all AT&T precursors of [1-4]BSD.
I have a small question, which I hope you can
clarify for me. I'm in a
little argument with a person involved in NetBSD.
Ummm, I'm not a lawyer of course...
He claims that NetBSD is the oldest free BSD
still alive, which I reacted
to since it was my belief that 2BSD now is free.
But is 2BSD free? That I don't know. It is more free than it was
a long time ago but This have
resulted in the claim that Berkley is the one that is
restricting 2BSD, which was news to me. Is this in any way correct? The
* Copyright (c) 1986 Regents of the University of California.
* All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement
* specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
That was the earlier version of the BSD license - when you had to have
a ATT/USL/BellLabs license in order to obtain BSD at all.
I am not sure I have a copy of the original UCB license but I think
part of it involved having a ATT/USL license. Can you
clarify this for me, please? :-)
Does the current state of the Caldera/SCO/whatever license override
any existing licenses? THAT I do not know. If that is the case
then I would say that 2BSD is indeed free, on the other hand if people
are still legally constrained by the earlier license then 2BSD is
not totally free. Earlier versions of NetBSD would not be free
either because they contain "encumbered code" from the era when a
ATT/USL license was required.
They should now be free for the same reason.
Greg
--
Finger grog(a)lemis.com for PGP public key
See complete headers for address and phone numbers
2:27 a.m.
On Thu, Mar 20, 2003 at 10:38:03AM +1030, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:
IMHO Caldera/SCO could only release the AT&T part
of xBSD. To release xBSD completely the UCB would
have to do this formally...
Caveats: haven't Caldera/SCO pulled back this re-
lease (IIRC I saw something like that when I vi-
sited their web site; reason whatever "abuse").
Also these releases from them used to be for per-
sonal, education/research use and thus would re-
strict the scope of their release. At least this
was the case when you had still to apply in wri-
ting to SCO.
I guess UCB wouldn't like again to test the current
status quo at court...
...
On Wednesday, 19 March 2003 at 9:40:30 -0800, Steven
M. Schultz wrote:
...
But is 2BSD
free? That I don't know. It is more free than it was
a long time ago but
After Caldera released the Ancient UNIX license last January, 2BSD
must be free, unless I'm missing something. Does the
current state of the Caldera/SCO/whatever license override
any existing licenses? THAT I do not know.
My understanding (and I'm pretty sure it's correct) is that it
replaces the old AT&T license for the specified products, including
all AT&T precursors of [1-4]BSD. From the Caldera/SCO law suit, I conclude that those
old licenses are still valid. Caldera/SCO are the le-
gal owners today; i.e. the license holders.
I'm not aware that they created a new license, super-
seeding the old ones.
My opinion is that the xBSDs are still restricted (to
personal, educational/research type of use).
The first really unrestricted BSD would be 4.4BSD-lite.
NetBSD was indeed the first spin-off of this one...
But as all the precedent writers, I'm no lawyer too.
--
M. Giegerich, mail: migieger(a)vsnl.com, phone: +91.(0)80.5530154
7709
days inactive
7710
days old
2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
-
Greg 'groggy' Lehey -
Michael Giegerich -
Steven M. Schultz