[TUHS] Early BSD license thread

Warner Losh imp at bsdimp.com
Thu Sep 22 08:24:25 AEST 2022


On Wed, Sep 21, 2022 at 4:09 PM Rich Salz <rich.salz at gmail.com> wrote:

> Recall also that the AT&T code was protected by "trade secret" claims, so
> that and the Berne convention meant a copyright on each file wasn't needed.
> As the copyright moved to being used as a license, doing so became more
> important.
>

Indeed. The lack of copyright notices prior to Berne was also a big problem
for enforcing copyright claims, which is why most companies relied on trade
secrets prior to the mid 80s. It's a big reason, I think, the settlement
punted on trade secret protections, but made a big deal about respecting
each other's copyrights (despite preliminary rulings casting doubt in that
area).

Warner
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