[TUHS] Sys III - Yet Again

[Pat Villani]

It's a bit more complicated than that, so no one should rush out and claim that 
System III is public domain.  Omission from this set of documentation does not 
mean that no one owns it.  Instead, it means that the original owner still owns 
it.  Whether that is AT&T, Unix Systems Labs, now defunct, or the lawful owners 
of its assets, Lucent Technologies, Novell or SCO is uncertain, but there is an 
owner.

In my opinion, the original asset purchase agreement and follow on amendments 
were poorly written and do not address the actual ownership of intellectual 
property.  It is my opinion that they have confused license to use and 
distribute with ownership, i.e., copyright.  They would have done well to look 
at book contracts and author agreements for a model.

Of course, that is my opinion, not that of HP or anyone associated with HP.  In 
addition, I am not a lawyer and anyone affected by these matters should seek 
legal counsel prior to taking any action.

Pat

Wesley Parish wrote:

> I just thought of a reason _why_ Caldera was unable to clarify the status of 
> System III - if you look at the documents on Groklaw.net, 
> http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=legal-docs
> 
> one of them's a document between Novell and SCO Original, where the System V 
> releases are enumerated.  Another is a similar document which mentions the 
> Ancient Unix and their manuals as being part of the deal.
> 
> Neither document that I can recall, mentions anything about System III - and 
> apparently Warren Toomey had to supply them with that, so it would appear 
> that System III is - quite literally - unclaimed by anyone, apart from its 
> copyright notices, and thus - since neither The SCO Group nor Novell has laid 
> claim to it in their copyright battle - it could well be considered Public 
> Domain.
> 
> Just a thought, and don't take my word for it.

-- 
Things could always be worse; for instance, you could be ugly and work in the 
Post Office. -- Adrienne E. Gusoff