From: Luther Johnson <luther@makerlisp.com>
To: tuhs@tuhs.org
Subject: [TUHS] Re: UNIX System V Release 2.2 gdts Vax-780
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:41:53 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <25b24f92-49a6-626f-18c4-08c2d8ba7876@makerlisp.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CANCZdfqwfsbDBPR5r8Lo7yv69he-btyRpy1i8mfVgU74J2Y_Dg@mail.gmail.com>
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I think the real risk is not measured in dollars, but potential damage
to reputations, ill will, the perception that it's not legal or kosher, etc.
So I completely understand this well-founded caution.
However if anyone was interested in approaching the license holders and
seeing if licenses could be obtained or purchased, I'm interested in that.
On 03/15/2023 04:30 PM, Warner Losh wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 3:56 PM steve jenkin <sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au
> <mailto:sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au>> wrote:
>
> "What “uses” would SysV codebase have now?" may be a better Q.
>
>
> A System V release 2 might have very limited use (old VAXen are all it
> ran on from
> AT&T though there were at least a few ports: 68k for sure).
>
> The successor code base of OpenIndiana which forked from OpenSolaris
> which was System Vr4 plus a bunch... And that's open... illumos is
> still using that for its distribution... They'd have been totally
> dead, imho, were it not for OpenZFS using illumos for so long as the
> reference platform (that's changed, so now Linux and FreeBSD are the
> reference platforms, though one of those two is more equal than the
> other).
>
> But the successor code base being open isn't quite the same as System
> V being open. There's no 'orphan exception' or 'abandonware rider'
> that would allow us to distribute this without any legal risk.
>
> But there's the rub: what's the legal risk. The legal risk here is
> that somebody could show up and assert they have rights to the
> software, and that we're distributing it illegally. Actual damages
> likely are near $0 these days, but statutory damages could become
> quite excessive. But to get damages, one would likely need a lot of
> money to fight it, and there's not any kind of real revenue stream
> from System V today (let alone from System V r2). Plus, were this
> successfully prosecuted, it's not like that would increase that
> revenue stream: TUHS has no assets, so the current IP owner would have
> to somehow assess there was blood to be had from this stone, which is
> unlikely... So, how do you rate the risk of a low-probability, high
> damage outcome vs the near certainty of a no-damage outcome. Since
> it's none of our butt's but Warren's, he gets to decide his comfort
> zone here. :)
>
> So the risk of adverse consequences is likely low, but not zero were
> we to distribute this without a license to do so. There's plenty of
> others that are doing so today, but that's between the others and
> whatever IP owners
>
> Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, and this isn't legal advice...
>
> Warner
>
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2023-03-15 23:42 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 43+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2023-03-15 11:59 Noel Chiappa
2023-03-15 21:03 ` Warren Toomey via TUHS
2023-03-15 21:08 ` Clem Cole
2023-03-15 21:15 ` Luther Johnson
2023-03-15 21:18 ` Seth Morabito
2023-03-15 21:22 ` Larry McVoy
2023-03-15 21:27 ` Clem Cole
2023-03-15 21:38 ` KenUnix
2023-03-16 23:18 ` Clem Cole
2023-03-16 23:48 ` Charles H. Sauer (he/him)
2023-03-17 1:08 ` Steve Nickolas
2023-03-15 21:46 ` Steve Nickolas
2023-03-15 21:50 ` Luther Johnson
2023-03-15 21:56 ` steve jenkin
2023-03-15 22:15 ` Larry McVoy
2023-03-15 23:30 ` Warner Losh
2023-03-15 23:41 ` Luther Johnson [this message]
2023-03-16 0:29 ` Warner Losh
2023-03-16 0:36 ` Rich Salz
2023-03-16 1:55 ` G. Branden Robinson
2023-03-16 21:14 ` Dave Horsfall
2023-03-17 0:33 ` Rich Salz
2023-03-17 1:03 ` [TUHS] copyright (was: Re: UNIX System V Release 2.2 gdts Vax-780) G. Branden Robinson
2023-03-17 1:05 ` [TUHS] Re: UNIX System V Release 2.2 gdts Vax-780 segaloco via TUHS
2023-03-17 2:03 ` G. Branden Robinson
2023-03-17 3:17 ` Dave Horsfall
2023-03-17 3:30 ` [TUHS] Reply-To and Mail-Followup-To (was: Re: UNIX System V Release 2.2 gdts Vax-780) G. Branden Robinson
2023-03-17 15:12 ` [TUHS] " Pete Turnbull
2023-03-17 15:33 ` segaloco via TUHS
2023-03-17 16:42 ` Steve Nickolas
2023-03-17 18:27 ` Marc Donner
2023-03-16 1:15 ` [TUHS] Re: UNIX System V Release 2.2 gdts Vax-780 Larry McVoy
2023-03-16 2:14 ` Luther Johnson
2023-03-15 23:44 ` Brad Spencer
2023-03-16 4:37 ` Dave Horsfall
2023-03-15 23:56 ` [TUHS] Re: OSF/1.0 Sources Joseph Holsten
2023-03-17 2:28 ` [TUHS] Re: UNIX System V Warren Toomey via TUHS
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2023-03-15 22:25 [TUHS] Re: UNIX System V Release 2.2 gdts Vax-780 Noel Chiappa
2023-03-15 22:39 ` segaloco via TUHS
2023-03-15 0:59 Noel Chiappa
2023-03-15 8:05 ` arnold
2023-03-15 8:52 ` Dave Horsfall
2023-03-15 11:09 ` KenUnix
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