From: wb@freebie.xs4all.nl (Wilko Bulte)
Subject: [TUHS] unix non disclosure clauses
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 13:05:58 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20050420110558.GA47232@freebie.xs4all.nl> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <7ff9538b050420015572373a6d@mail.gmail.com>
On Wed, Apr 20, 2005 at 10:55:39AM +0200, martin hardie wrote..
> Hi i joined this list as I found some intersting stuff in its archives
> and I am working on my Phd in law concerning the logic and rhetoric of
> FOSS and i thought maybe the list would be a good source of
> knowledgable information.
>
> I am currently proofing a draft thesis chapter I have put together on
> the early history of Unix and have a question or two arising from text
> of the early licences.
>
> The 1974 licence to the Catholic University in Holland (I guess this
That must be the KUN. Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen.
> was to Andy Tanenbaum) has a confidentiality clause in it. I presume
> this was a standard clause.
You might want to ask hjt at atcomputing.nl, as he was one of the folks
that got it into the KUN.
> That is interesting from lots of perspectives - the myth of a unix
> commons, which we both know is a myth in the GNUish sense although
> people like Lessig still say it in their tomes; and from the
> perspective that copyright or patents where not used to cover the code
> but confidential inofrmation - this resonates with my work with
> Aboriginal artists in Australia and their communal system of
> knowledge production and with the notion of trust and equity which I
> am building towards in this research.
>
> But right now what interests me is a bit more in the context of
> contemporary "licence fetishism" or the way licences and IP were
> viewed back then. I am sort of trying to deal with the way that many
> commentators (like Lessig, Wayner and even Raymond) credit changes in
> unix and linux to legal command. I just don't buy that but position
> them more in the context of the globalisation of production.
>
> Anyway, the question - the licences prohibited dissemination of Unix
> to third parties - eg in the case of universities the system could
> only be given/shown to students and employees.
>
> How then was the question of bugs, fixes and updates dealt with? Did
> everything come back to Bell and then get dealt with from there. IE
> the question of who controllled "R&D"? Did universities talk directly
> to each other? And if so when did this become a problem for AT&T? If
> at all? If they did was there any conception that they were breaking
> the licence conditions?
>
> I am also intrigued about Raymond's comment that Ken quietly shipped
> out copies of the program with a note "love Ken". Is this based in
> fact? was it a covert operation? And is it tied into the matter of
> turning a blind eye to licence conditions eg the unis talking to each
> other directly?
>
> Is that clear? If the uni's were talking to each other and Ken was
> sending out gift wrapped parcels ......... maybe there was a commons
> but not one annointed by law.....
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Martin
> _______________________________________________
> TUHS mailing list
> TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org
> http://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs
>
--- end of quoted text ---
--
Wilko
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2005-04-20 11:05 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2005-04-20 8:55 martin hardie
2005-04-20 11:05 ` Wilko Bulte [this message]
2005-04-20 12:28 ` Kurt Wall
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