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From: cgd@agate.berkeley.edu (Chris G. Demetriou)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: Restrictions on 'free' UNIX / 386BSD (Re: selling 386BSD)
Date: 14 Aug 92 20:45:05
Organization: Kernel Hackers 'r' Us
Lines: 59
Message-ID: <CGD.92Aug14204505@agate.berkeley.edu>
References: x <l8n8qcINN2c5@neuro.usc.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: agate.berkeley.edu
In-reply-to: merlin@neuro.usc.edu's message of 14 Aug 92 12:13:00 GMT
well, thanks for all the enlightened criticism... too bad i didn't notice it
earlier -- i was dealing with my mail here on agate...
re: the serial driver stuff:
As a matter of fact, I had just reconsidered, and was about to take
the copyright notice *OFF* the file, and lo, and behold, i got hit by N
flames.
Let me set something straight:
I do not do any of the stuff that i've done re: 386bsd (the serial driver,
the fact that i run the distribution site on agate, the filesystem i'm working
on) for *you*, or *anyone* else on the net. I do what i do because i *want*
to. I do not want to be a martyr, thank you very much, and you can
argue all you want that i shouldn't put a new copyright notice on something
that i write, but it sure as hell is my right.
Adding that copyright notice, i realized, would do nothing but create
more hassles for *me*, which i don't want, and so i was
going to remove it.
remember: you have no *rights* to the works of others; anything they
decide to give to you, be *GLAD* for.
several more things:
the original copyright protects the UC regents, and contributors
of code *TO UCB* from lawsuits, etc. because of use of the code.
It says nothing about other people who hack on it...
there's a big difference between wanting somebody to pay you for
your code, and wanting to know who is selling it. If you think
that any major royalties could from a serial driver, when it's
such a small part of the 386bsd package, you've gotta be outta
your mind!
I've never claimed that myt serial driver was in any way official.
If you consider it so "infectuous," then you certainly don't
have to use it. Your loss, not mine.
i'm not going to go on any further... I've a good tip on further improvements
to the serial driver, and i plan to pursue it... However, i'd bet
that i'm not going to spend any more nights working til 3AM, to get
stuff out on the net asap.
So, the final word in this round, from me is that *IF* the people who flamed
me on this had displayed much (if any) respect for my rights as an author
that copyright notice would be gone right now.
Since they did not, it's still there, and could very well remain there.
ever read Heinlein? "TANSTAAFL"
cgd
--
Chris G. Demetriou cgd@agate.berkeley.edu
"Sometimes it is better to have twenty million instructions by
Friday than twenty million instructions per second." -- Wes Clark