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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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  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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