[pups] Re: Condition of 2BSD

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Wednesday, 19 March 2003 at  9:40:30 -0800, Steven M. Schultz wrote:
>
>> 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

After Caldera released the Ancient UNIX license last January, 2BSD
must be free, unless I'm missing something.

>> 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.

Right, but that's what Caldera released.

>> 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.

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.

>       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
--
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