[TUHS] Western Electric "Research Unix" License Contacts

Clem Cole clemc at ccc.com
Sat Nov 23 01:36:08 AEST 2019


I should have said, 'licensable for commercial use.'  The most famous piece
of IP that came out of this agreement was not UNIX, but rather the
transistor.  The rest of the electronics community made way more money than
AT&T did on the transistor.

On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 10:34 AM Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:

> I sent you some stuff privately, but the key point is that is was required
> by the US Gov as part of the 1956 Consent decree.
> AT&T had to make its IP available to the research community and licensable
> under 'fair terms' which would be reviewed by the regulators.  Al Arms
> wrote and administer the license BTW.  I've lost track of him.  I want to
> say he may have passed, but I don't want to start a rumor.   You might
> check with the Nokia folks, as I did not see him at the 50th and I would
> have expected him there.
>
> Clem
>
> On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 9:39 AM David C. Brock <dbrock at computerhistory.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear All:
>>
>> I was wondering if anyone had any first-hand information about the early
>> decisions at Western Electric to make an education license for Unix that
>> was both royalty-free and with an extremely modest “service
>> charge”/delivery fee, or if anyone knows the names of key people who made
>> these decisions.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> David
>> ..............
>> David C. Brock
>> Director and Curator
>> Software History Center
>> Computer History Museum
>> computerhistory.org/softwarehistory<
>> http://computerhistory.org/softwarehistory>
>> Email: dbrock at computerhistory.org
>> Twitter: @dcbrock
>> Skype: dcbrock
>> 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
>> Mountain View, CA 94943
>> (650) 810-1010 main
>> (650) 810-1886 direct
>> Pronouns: he, him, his
>>
>>
>>
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