On Wed, Mar 13, 2024, 8:14 PM Marc Rochkind <mrochkind@gmail.com> wrote:
Don't know the answer to your question, but last I knew the trademark (not the copyright) was transferred to The Open Group. They came up with a set of rules for what UNIX is and, as I understand it, for example, Linux is not a UNIX-like system, it is a UNIX system.

Only some distributions... only a few have gone to the hassle of being certified... and usually on only on or two architectures.

(The Open Group isn't interested in implementations of the UNIX standard, only the standard itself.)

Things change, and my information is a few years old. For all I know Elon Musk owns it all now. ;-)

Last I checked, no.

Of course by that measure, Unix isn't UNIX anymore...

Warner

Marc

On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 6:34 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
Did some reading today, curious on the current state of things with AT&T's UNIX copyright genealogy.  The series of events as I understand it are:

AT&T partners with Novell for the Univel initiative.

Novell then acquires System V and USL from AT&T.

Novell sells UNIX System V's source to SCO, but as the courts have ruled, not the copyright.

Novell gets purchased by Microfocus.

Microfocus gets purchased by OpenText Corporation.

Does this make OpenText the current copyright holders of the commercial UNIX line from AT&T.

What got me looking a bit closer into this is curiosity regarding how the opening of Solaris and the CDDL may impact publication of UNIX code between System III and SVR4.  I then felt the need to refresh on who might be the current copyright holder and this is where the trail has lead me.

My understanding too is that Sun's release under the CDDL set the precedent that other sub-licencees of System V codebases are also at liberty to relicense their codebases, but this may be reading too far into it.  There's also the concern that the ghost of SCO will continue to punish anyone else who tries with costly-but-doomed-to-fail litigation.  Have there been any happenings lately with regards to getting AT&T UNIX post-PDP-11 opened up more in the world?  Reading up a bit on OpenText's business, they don't seem like they're invested in the OS world, seems that their primary sector is content management.  Granted, there's certainly under-the-radar trading of bits and pieces, but it would be nice to have some more certainty about what can happen out in the open.

- Matt G.


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My new email address is mrochkind@gmail.com