[TUHS] UNIX System V Release 2.2 gdts Vax-780
Luther Johnson
luther at makerlisp.com
Thu Mar 16 09:41:53 AEST 2023
I think the real risk is not measured in dollars, but potential damage
to reputations, ill will, the perception that it's not legal or kosher, etc.
So I completely understand this well-founded caution.
However if anyone was interested in approaching the license holders and
seeing if licenses could be obtained or purchased, I'm interested in that.
On 03/15/2023 04:30 PM, Warner Losh wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 3:56 PM steve jenkin <sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au
> <mailto: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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