Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 03:19:46 +0200 From: "Julian H. Stacey" <jhs@flat.berklix.net> To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: CDROM-Artwork Message-ID: <200610240119.k9O1Jk0R035428@fire.jhs.private> In-Reply-To: <200610231639.k9NGdiUn065080@lurza.secnetix.de> References: <200610231639.k9NGdiUn065080@lurza.secnetix.de>
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Oliver Fromme wrote:
> [Trimmed Cc list.]
>
> Julian H. Stacey wrote:
> > 2, Page 1899 has it all capitals. All through the book, the .rof
> > macro generating the automatic footer does it as caps. Bell sold
> > Unix through a tedious chain of companies to whoever owns it this week.
>
> Well, the chain isn't that long and tedious, basically AT&T,
> USL, Novell and The Open Group. And even USL doesn't really
> count because it was just a "daughter" of AT&T. The Open
> Group owns the trademark for 13 years now. Saying "whoever
> owns it this week" isn't really justified, I think.
Just a jaundiced view, was more to be read between the lines, eg:
"Who owns Unix?" issues have been around for decades: 1980 +-2
Unix wasn't just a license, but a trade secret, Lyons V6 books
got recalled & passed. Universities were allowed sources,
polytechnics not. After Bell & USL there was Unix Europe etc
in Putney, London that sold Unix licenses in the early 80s.
SCO involvements arose. Unix & BSD trademarks, The non disclosed
BSD settlements, early patents issues eg SUID & compress.
If BSD grows to interest marketers like Linux has, some predators
will migrate from Microsoft & Linux to BSD. Some [big] users will
likely get opportunistically sued, There are always enough exploitative
people in business to assure that, ( & before anyone thinks "Can't
be sued, if done nothing wrong", Not so, One need do nothing wrong
& still be sued, eg:
- To chance lots of dodgy claims (Per USA judge criticising SCO).
- To waste time & disrupt a competitor's key personnel.
- To impose expenses that may not be recovered before insolvency.
With USA government & European Patent Office in an arms race
for future software patent trade wars, programmers may need lots
of patent lawyers, considering src/ & ports/ & cdrom/dvd
& ftp sitess, Future software patent claims may well outweigh
trademark compliance admin costs.
--
Julian Stacey. BSD Unix C Net Consultancy, Munich/Muenchen http://berklix.com
Mail Ascii, not HTML. Ihr Rauch = mein allergischer Kopfschmerz.
http://berklix.org/free-software
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