*BSD News Article 6865


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From: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Newsgroups: alt.suit.att-bsdi,comp.unix.bsd,comp.org.eff.talk,misc.int-property
Subject: Re: Rumour: UCB considering dropping defence of BSD
Keywords: UCB defence
Message-ID: <1992Oct21.201355.10322@nntp.hut.fi>
Date: 21 Oct 92 20:13:55 GMT
References: <1c3q1jINNoah@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>
Sender: usenet@nntp.hut.fi (Usenet pseudouser id)
Reply-To: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Lines: 18
In-Reply-To: comrade@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Peter Cooper)
Nntp-Posting-Host: laphroaig.cs.hut.fi

In article <1c3q1jINNoah@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>, comrade@uniwa (Peter Cooper) writes:
>Will ATT (or USL or whatever they call
>themselves these days) be able to yank all copies of NET/2 or BSD from the
>net?  What happens to people who already have copies of these sets of code?

Even if USL convinces U.S. ftp sites to stop distributing by
intimidation and threats of legal action, I'm not sure it would
succeed with sites outside USA.  It could be that it goes like
software patents - people outside USA will be able to distribute and
use more freely.

Then again, as we know the U.S. government is using it's international
political and economic power to get wider patent and copyright laws
implemented outside USA (as well as inside, bypassing congressional
power), so it might be that the rest of us are losers in the game as
well.

//Jyrki