*BSD News Article 2364


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From: ralph@falcon.SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Ralph Becker-Szendy)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: AT&T sues BSDI
Message-ID: <4825@unixhub.SLAC.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 23 Jul 92 22:50:26 GMT
References: <1992Jul22.221515.23550@tfs.com> <1992Jul23.173248@eklektix.com> <1992Jul23.204845.28978@ddsw1.mcs.com>
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In article <1992Jul23.204845.28978@ddsw1.mcs.com> karl@ddsw1.mcs.com (Karl 
Denninger) writes (abbreviated):
>I think we should organize a boycott of AT&T products and services, and 
>tell 'em why.  This means that MCI gets my long-distance service.

I (as a private individual) am already boycotting AT&T (due to XWindow
backing store). My long-distance carrier is MCI. The phone at home is
made by Panasonic. I have no plans to purchase phone equipment. I
could try to steer purchases at work away from AT&T, but that would be
a horrible crime of tampering with Federal Government Purchasing.
Note: our group does purchase about $3K of phone service from AT&T per
month, and we are about to add a satellite international link which
will cost close to $10K/month, also from AT&T; in both cases there is
no competition to AT&T, so there are no other options. I could start
boycotting all Un*x systems (since they all eventually go back to an
AT&T license), but that would be a very unreasonable hardship (I would
get no work done any longer).

So the question is: What can I do (as a private individual) to help
BSDI, and intellectual freedom? Looks pretty bleak, doesn't it. The
only option is to directly donate money to BSDI, or (equivalent) buy a
copy of BSDI's Unix which I don't need right now.

This is not a rhetorical question (if there is something one can do to
help, I'd like to know), although it really looks like there is
nothing one can do. Short of tossing Molotov-cocktails into the
nearest AT&T facility (which again is not suggested and a crime, for
good reason).

-- 
Ralph Becker-Szendy                          RALPH@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center                      RALPH@SLACVM.BITNET
M.S. 95, P.O. Box 4349, Stanford, CA 94309                    (415)926-2701
My opinion. This is not SLAC, Stanford U, or the US DoE speaking. Just me.