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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!sgiblab!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!news From: merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: UNIGRAM's article on the USL-BSDI suit Message-ID: <l7k4u1INNgbc@neuro.usc.edu> Date: 1 Aug 92 04:32:01 GMT References: <1992Aug1.020513.14170@plts.uucp> Sender: merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin) Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Lines: 56 NNTP-Posting-Host: neuro.usc.edu In article <> tal@plts.uucp (Tom Limoncelli) writes: >The week before last, BSDI put the full text of Unix System Labs' >initial complaint (but not the expanded suit) on UUNet, >ostensibly because so many people were asking to see the exact >wording - see front page. As might be expected, the move has >stirred up a hornet's nest of academic fear and loathing against >USL and has created a cadre of naive tech weinees ready to form a >lynch mob. For all their thousands of lines of protests, however, >no one has flat out denied USL's intellectual property rights. >USL's suit asks the courts to oblige UC Berkeley to abide by its >license from USL. Perhaps the people at UNIGRAM don't understand what they have been reading? I clearly denied all of AT&T's supposed claims including: o AT&T's claimed trademark on UNIX o AT&T's claimed copyright on 4.3BSD-NET2 o AT&T's claimed patents in 4.3BSD-NET2 o AT&T's claimed trade secrets in 4.3BSD-NET2 My principal point was that AT&T's long failure to enforce any of it's supposed intellectual property rights in the 4.3BSD-NET1 and 4.3BSD-NET2 codes transfered these claims into the public domain. Given the free public release of the source codes for 4.3BSD-NET2 and the common use of the term UNIX to describe both AT&T and non AT&T systems there is no question AT&T long ago surrendered their interest in the source code for 'Berkeley UNIX' and the term UNIX. As far as being a "tech weinee (sic)" -- well, judge for yourself: M.S. Management of Information Systems, Claremont Grad School, 1985 M.S. Biology, University of Southern California, 1991 Ph.D. Neuroscience, University of Southern California, In Progress 1984-85 Manager--Computer Systems, Korn Ferry International 1985-86 Manager--Academic Computing, San Diego State University 1986-87 Manager--Scientific Computing, Eli Lilly 1986-92 Faculty Member, MS/MIS Program, West Coast University 1987-92 Grad Fellow, Neurobiology, University of Southern California I don't suppose anyone from UNIGRAM would care to comment here and/or accept a reply for publication in their 'journal.' ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alexander-James Annala Principal Investigator Neuroscience Image Analysis Network HEDCO Neuroscience Building, Fifth Floor University of Southern California University Park Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520 Telephone: (213)740-3406 FAX: (213)746-2863 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------