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Received: by minnie.vk1xwt.ampr.org with NNTP id AA222 ; Fri, 29 Jan 93 17:01:00 EST Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!uunet!sci34hub!gary From: gary@sci34hub.sci.com (Gary Heston) Subject: Re: BSDI/USL Lawsuit -- More Bad News for Human Beings... Message-ID: <1993Jan28.184551.22515@sci34hub.sci.com> Reply-To: gary@sci34hub.sci.com (Gary Heston) Organization: SCI Systems, Inc., Huntsville, Al. References: <1993Jan22.005910.9864@choate.edu> <1993Jan28.050526.22773@unislc.uucp> Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 18:45:51 GMT Lines: 31 In article <1993Jan28.050526.22773@unislc.uucp> erc@unislc.uucp (Ed Carp) writes: >Thor Lancelot Simon (lancelot@spock.uucp) wrote: [ has had source access, but... ] >: I'm a minor. So I'm not bound by any contractual obligation, to AT&T or anyone >: else. If USL is still working on the trade-secret angle in their lawsuit, I >: or others like me will, once we hit the mainstream of the computer industry, >: be exactly the type of legal conduit for information that removes trade-secret >: protection. I doubt that USL has the legal resources to fight with the common >: law... I doubt Thor has a clue as to the pigheadedness of AT&T/USLs' legal staff, and their willingness to squander millions trying to ruin someone on the other side of a lawsuit. Common law won't stand a chance without $10 million or so to support it. >The problem with that is that whoever gave you access to the source can be sued >(and successfully, I might add) for giving you such access, because you are not >an adult, and cannot enter into a legal binding contract - this is a clear >violation of the AT&T licensing agreement. Based on this rational, AT&T/USL shouldn't have issued a source license to a educational institution; virtually every student falls under the classification of "minor". Unless the agreement specifically prohibited access by students, that's tacit approval of a non-enforcable situation. I'm sure the schools' lawyers would have a field day with that... -- Gary Heston SCI Systems, Inc. gary@sci34hub.sci.com site admin The Chairman of the Board and the CFO speak for SCI. I'm neither. Windows NT documentation: "Command to change password CTL-ALT-DEL"