From owner-freebsd-hackers Sat Sep 13 20:47:36 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id UAA18047 for hackers-outgoing; Sat, 13 Sep 1997 20:47:36 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sendero-ppp.i-connect.net (sendero-ppp.i-Connect.Net [206.190.143.100]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id UAA18031 for ; Sat, 13 Sep 1997 20:47:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 18011 invoked by uid 1000); 14 Sep 1997 03:47:52 -0000 Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.2-alpha [p0] on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <19970913200905.31425@hydrogen.nike.efn.org> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 1997 20:47:52 -0700 (PDT) Organization: Atlas Telecom From: Simon Shapiro To: John-Mark Gurney Subject: Re: Patches on senderp-ppp.i-connect.net Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG, "Rodney W. Grimes" Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Hi John-Mark Gurney; On 14-Sep-97 you wrote: ... > > a) It is not ``proprietary'' unless you take legal and proper actions > > to keep it as such. In most cases you have done just the opposite, > > you've given pointers to it in a public forum. > > > > b) The action of making it avaliable to anyone other than yourself > > is `publication'', thierfor the code is not ``unpublished''. > > if this is true.. and that simply letting people download load it means > that the copyright is invalid (i.e. it's publicly avail), then why do we > worry about GPL'd code?? it's publicly avail.. but we still have to > adhear > to the copyright attached... so why does this apply to his code? > > it also only in theory that published material is free... but case law > has proven otherwise.. this is the basis for all intellectual property > law... It is my limited understanding (our liers are vague about it) is that the fact that a song is broadcast on the radio, a movie in the theater and a book available in the library do not reduce, nor void the original author's copyright. What I am told about proprietary is that it goes with ``.. and unpublished''. This expression makes the work private and if you cannot prove you had permission to have a copy, makes your copy illegally obtained, making it easier for the lawyers to win that huge lawsuit against you. The fact that the ftp login does not require a password and thus makes it OK to freely copy, is akin to the shoplifter claiming innocence as the door was open, the merchandise was freely on the table and the survailence camera off. BTW, the original intent of my posting was to make it clear that we do not want to be responsible for your trying untested code, and that you do not run off with some (or all) of this code, claiming it to be free. Some of it is (DPT), some of it may be, but not yet. Some of it will probably never be ``free''. If you are not sure, ask me. ... --- Sincerely Yours, (Sent on 13-Sep-97, 20:38:30 by XF-Mail) Simon Shapiro Atlas Telecom Senior Architect 14355 SW Allen Blvd., Suite 130 Beaverton OR 97005 Shimon@i-Connect.Net Voice: 503.643.5559, Emergency: 503.799.2313