[TUHS] UNIX System V Release 2.2 gdts Vax-780

[Warner Losh]

On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 3:56 PM steve jenkin <sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au>
wrote:

> "What “uses” would SysV codebase have now?" may be a better Q.
>

A System V release 2 might have very limited use (old VAXen are all it ran
on from
AT&T though there were at least a few ports: 68k for sure).

The successor code base of OpenIndiana which forked from OpenSolaris which
was System Vr4 plus a bunch... And that's open... illumos is still using
that for its distribution... They'd have been totally dead, imho, were it
not for OpenZFS using illumos for so long as the reference platform (that's
changed, so now Linux and FreeBSD are the reference platforms, though one
of those two is more equal than the other).

But the successor code base being open isn't quite the same as System V
being open. There's no 'orphan exception' or 'abandonware rider' that would
allow us to distribute this without any legal risk.

But there's the rub: what's the legal risk. The legal risk here is that
somebody could show up and assert they have rights to the software, and
that we're distributing it illegally. Actual damages likely are near $0
these days, but statutory damages could become quite excessive. But to get
damages, one would likely need a lot of money to fight it, and there's not
any kind of real revenue stream from System V today (let alone from System
V r2). Plus, were this successfully prosecuted, it's not like that would
increase that revenue stream: TUHS has no assets, so the current IP owner
would have to somehow assess there was blood to be had from this stone,
which is unlikely... So, how do you rate the risk of a low-probability,
high damage outcome vs the near certainty of a no-damage outcome. Since
it's none of our butt's but Warren's, he gets to decide his comfort zone
here. :)

So the risk of adverse consequences is likely low, but not zero were we to
distribute this without a license to do so. There's plenty of others that
are doing so today, but that's between the others and whatever IP owners

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, and this isn't legal advice...

Warner
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