[TUHS] copyright, was History of cal(1) ?

[Douglas McIlroy via TUHS]

Prior to Unix, Calvin Mooers had spooked AT&T about software
copyrights. Mooers obtained the copyright for a 1966 CACM article
about his TRAC language and sued Western Electric, claiming that
Claude Kagan's implementation of TRAC based on the article infringed
the copyright.

A Mooers win would have opened a Pandora's box, allowing languages to
be copyrighted and, more generally, turning the technical literature
into an arsenal for litigators.  Although AT&T was confident of
winning in court, the prospect of a loss, no matter how unlikely, was
so appalling that they settled. The only publicly visible outcome was
that Kagan changed the name of his implementation to Sam67.

Doug