From: Dan Cross <crossd@gmail.com>
To: Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu>
Cc: TUHS main list <tuhs@tuhs.org>
Subject: [TUHS] Re: The Mark Williams Company and Coherent
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2024 08:27:21 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAEoi9W5zgCZaEMY5fd68qWj-nDMMANMu+=0_9eTnJUGeApMtnQ@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAKH6PiWN+CNEBmU+f2BbPWWUyd3j0bDq2otJPJbDda-4iRSbBg@mail.gmail.com>
On Fri, Mar 15, 2024 at 5:24 PM Douglas McIlroy
<douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>
> > There was lawyerly concern about the code being stolen.
>
> Not always misplaced. There was a guy in Boston who sold Unix look-alike programs. A quick look at the binary revealed perfect correlation with our C source. Coincidentally, DEC had hired this person as a consultant in connection with cross-licensing negotiations with AT&T. Socializing at the end of a day's negotiations, our lawyer somehow managed to turn the conversation to software piracy. He discussed a case he was working on, and happened to have some documents about it in his briefcase. He pulled out a page disassembled binary and a page of source code and showed them to the consultant.
>
> After a little study, the consultant confidently opined that the binary was obviously compiled from that source. "Would it surprise you," the lawyer asked, "if I told you that this is yours and that is ours?" The consultant did not attend the following day's meeting.
Fantastic story, and talk about a true "Perry Mason" moment for the
lawyer. I'm sure it was also fertile material for stories at cocktail
parties for the rest of his days.
- Dan C.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2024-03-18 12:28 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 15+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2024-03-15 21:23 [TUHS] " Douglas McIlroy
2024-03-15 22:27 ` [TUHS] " Larry McVoy
2024-03-15 22:28 ` Dave Horsfall
2024-03-15 23:00 ` Marc Rochkind
2024-03-15 23:16 ` Rich Salz
2024-03-16 5:24 ` Dave Horsfall
2024-03-18 12:27 ` Dan Cross [this message]
2024-03-18 14:12 ` Douglas McIlroy
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2024-03-15 3:45 [TUHS] " Marc Rochkind
2024-03-15 5:16 ` [TUHS] " Heinz Lycklama
2024-03-15 7:00 ` Rob Pike
2024-03-15 13:03 ` Dan Cross
2024-03-15 13:43 ` Dan Cross
2024-03-15 14:10 ` Marc Rochkind
2024-03-15 15:42 ` Theodore Ts'o
2024-03-15 14:40 ` Paul Winalski
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