[TUHS] Unix single-machine licensing (was Re: Re: ACM Software System Award to Andrew S. Tanenbaum for MINIX)

[Al Kossow]

On 6/19/24 9:44 AM, Clem Cole wrote:
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jun 19, 2024 at 12:00 PM Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org <mailto:aek at bitsavers.org>> wrote:
> 
>     On 6/19/24 8:47 AM, Clem Cole wrote:
> 
>      > That's how I remember Otis Wilson explaining it to us as commercial licensees at a licensing meeting in the early 1980s.
>      > We had finally completed the PWB 3.0 license to replace the V7 commercial license (AT&T would rename this System III - but we knew it
>     as PWB
>      > 3.) during the negociations   Summit had already moved on to the next version - PWB 4.0.  IMO: Otis was not ready to start that
>     process again.
> 
>     Is the really early history of Unix licensing documented anywhere?
> 
> Not to my knowledge -- I probably know much/most of it as I lived it as part of a couple of the negotiation teams.
> 
>     The work on reviving a Plexus P20 prompted me to put up the history of Onyx and Plexus at
>     http://bitsavers.org/pdf/plexus/history <http://bitsavers.org/pdf/plexus/history> and a long time ago someone who worked at Fortune
>     told me we can all thank Onyx in 1980 for working out the single machine licensing withAT&T
> 
> Hmm, I'm not sure —but I don't think it is wholly clear—although Onyx was early and certainly would have been a part. They were not the only 
> firm that wanted redistribution rights.
> 
> Numerous vendors asked for the V7 redistribution license, with HP (Fred Clegg), Microsoft (Bob Greenberg/Bill Gates), and Tektronix (me) 
> being three, I am aware. It is quite possible Onyx signed the original V7 license first, but I know there was great unhappiness with the 
> terms that AT&T initially set up. When the folks from AT&T Patents and Licensing (Al Arms at that point) talked to us individually, it was 
> sort of "this is what we are offering"  - mind you, this all started >>pre-Judge Green<< and the concept of negotiation was 
> somewhat one-sided as AT&T was not allowed in the computer business.
> 

An interview with Bob Marsh where he claims Onyx had the first license in Nov 1979 (pg 40)
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/plexus/history/Bob_Marsh_Interview_198412.pdf