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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!uunet!usc!news From: merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: USL gets worried (cross posting from newsgroup comp.unix.bsdi) Date: 8 Sep 1992 14:18:09 -0700 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Lines: 73 Sender: merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin) Message-ID: <laq64hINN3ta@neuro.usc.edu> References: <1992Sep8.070731.21159@bernina.ethz.ch> NNTP-Posting-Host: neuro.usc.edu Article 267 of alt.suit.att-bsdi: From: connor@neuro.usc.edu (Sarah Jeanette Connor) Newsgroups: alt.suit.att-bsdi Subject: Reply to USL from a FICTIONAL CHARACTER (was Re: We could blow up USL) Date: 8 Sep 1992 13:22:20 -0700 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >sdo@usl.com on august 24, 1992 writes: > >Ted, > >In case you are not monitoring the discussion on the BSDI suit, I've >attached a couple of articles showing the general direction that things >are taking. There is also a thread of discussion among people who are >concerned that they will be prohibited on working on any operating system >software if they ever worked with UNIX source code. > >The title of the tread entitles "We could blow up USL" is fairly disturbing. > >In the other article I am including, an AT&T employee questions why >AT&T is involved in this action. > >Scott Orshan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >fec@mhuxo.att.com on august 21, 1992 writes: > >What exactly do you have in mind? > >Frank Carey >Bell Labs Computer Security ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >From connor Fri Aug 21 13:16:25 1992 To: fec@mhuxo.att.com Subject: Re: USL I was going to say something like -- have you ever seen the movies Terminator I or Terminator II -- but, seeing as you are from security at a company which might be related in some way to USL, I should be a bit more carefull -- and say that the posting was intended as an in character allusion to a purely fictional woman who has a habit of blowing up computer companies as a means of saving the world from an equally fictional future nuclear holocost. Many people in academia have responded that they found this posting to be a humorous relief to an extremely serious situation where it seems to many of us that AT&T is unfairly trying to 'create new law' which would make it virtually impossible for anyone who has seen a copy of the AT&T (R) UNIX (R) source codes to work on development of any other operating system software. Many academicians have come to feel a Star Wars type 'Evil Empire' with virtually unlimited financing is unfairly trying to crush a tiny band of 'software rebels' who are trying to make a go of marketing a free BSD unix based on the 4.3BSD NET2 version of unix which has been freely distributed to hundreds of thousands of academic sites by anonymous ftp. No doubt if you read through the USENET newsgroup comp.unix.bsd you will see that many in academia are cancelling entire campuses worth of AT&T telephone contracts, writing to AT&T's president, and getting their campus general counsel to work up amicus briefs, and doing any other thing they can to help UC Regents/BSDI defeat AT&T/USL's case. Nevertheless -- NO ONE IS SERIOUSLY OFFERING TO DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL -- AND NO SERIOUS THREAT IS INTENDED -- if you want to reexamine my posting, I only solicited information about security arrangements -- I never suggested anything should be done with that information. Best, Sarah Jeanette Connor A Fictional Character from Terminator I & Terminator II ------------------------------------------------------------------------------