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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!yeshua.marcam.com!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!netcomsv!netcom.com!hasty From: hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr) Subject: Re: Come now... Where's 1.1 Relese ? Message-ID: <hastyCo2EyH.CMp@netcom.com> Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) References: <2np62r$8vo$1@perth.dialix.oz.au> <CnwC7I.JLG@latcs1.lat.oz.au> <Co20tJ.KK9.3@cs.cmu.edu> Date: Sun, 10 Apr 1994 22:39:52 GMT Lines: 62 Perhaps this would begin to shed some light into the current situation... From: tgm@netcom.com (Thomas G. McWilliams) Subject: Re: USL vs. 386bsd derivatives Amancio Hasty Jr (hasty@netcom.com) wrote: : Hi, : I saw a couple of postings on comp.os.386bsd.questions that USL wants : distributors of 386bsd derivatives to stop distribution! : Has anyone of the NetBSD team been contacted? : Does anyone knows what is going on from the USL side? : I find the current situation a bit odd because USL vs BSDI & UCB lawsuits : are over... Actually the outcome of the lawsuit was to encumber the Net/2 sources. The primary copyright holders, Univ. of California and Novell, *both* have requested the halt of distributions of Net/2 derivatives. The 4.4BSD/lite distribution was suggested as the substitution. The statement released be the University of California asked that free distributions be based solely on the unencumbered 4.4/lite. Part of the reason is that UCB has relinquished copyright claim to portions of the Net/2 tree. These portions now must display a Novell copyright, and evidently Novell seems to be serious about cracking down on copyright violators. Several CD-Rom distributors have already been contacted. Use of the Net/2 tree now requires formal licensing and $$$. From: sef@kithrup.com (Sean Eric Fagan) In article <hastyCo01t4.3K3@netcom.com> hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr) writes: >I find the current situation a bit odd because USL vs BSDI & UCB lawsuits >are over... The (public parts of the) settlement allow BSDi, and BSDi *alone*, to distribute most of Net/2, although there are a handful of files they may only distribute in binary form. Because of the settlement, UCB no longer has the ability to defend anyone who continues to distribute Net/2. (In fact, UCB is currently in violation of the settlement for continuing to distribute Net/2-derived systems.) Anyone who continues to distribute Net/2 or Net/2-derived code (any part of it, mind you) runs the risk of having to deal with USL. And because UCB can no longer defend the tape, anyone who does so had either better have very deep pockets, or be willing to have a temporary or permanent restraining order thrown against them. With any luck, 4.4BSD-Lite will come out any day now. The person doing it is probably sick and tired of the whole thing by now, and probably wants it out as much as anyone else, if not more. For the free BSD's, after it comes out, there is then the decision of whether to completely rewrite the files and functions that are missing from it, or to use the (possibly unaccaptable to USL) ones currently in their trees. Either way, I would expect a minimum of two or three weeks to do it, and maybe as much as three or four months. -- FREE unix, gcc, tcp/ip, X, open-look, interviews, tcl/tk, MIME, midi, sound at freebsd.cdrom.com:/pub/FreeBSD Amancio Hasty, Consultant | Home: (415) 495-3046 | e-mail hasty@netcom.com | ftp-site depository of all my work: ahasty@cisco.com | sunvis.rtpnc.epa.gov:/pub/386bsd/X