From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: james@peacemax.org (James Falknor) Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 23:07:34 -0600 Subject: [TUHS] Re: Sad news from IBM... Message-ID: <42A7CE96.7040808@peacemax.org> > > >I was reading Groklaw yesterday night when I came across this. It is a >very sad thought to know that possibly tons of old/ancient code is being >dumped in the trash bin. > >More so now since the advent of software patents: it may become very >difficult to avoid a patent on a re-invention of the wheel if previous >knowledge has been dumped. > >OK, the quote. It is from "the Todd Shaughnessy affidavit [PDF] from IBM >that Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells requested they file when they turned >over all the code and paperwork to SCO": > > 28. As I have noted above, IBM does not maintain revision control > information for AIX source code pre-dating 1991. To the extent that > any code for the AIX operating system (that did not duplicate the > code already being produced in CMVC) was found during the search > described in Paragraph 26-27 above, it was produced. Paragraphs > 29-31 below describe additional search efforts IBM undertook to > locate pre-1991 versions of AIX code. No versions of AIX pre-dating > 1991 were found. > > 29. In the 1980s and early 1990s, IBM prepared vital records backups > of AIX source code and transferred them to a remote storage location. > At some point in the 1990s, the AIX vital records tapes were transferred > to Austin, Texas. In late 2000, the tapes were determined to be obsolete, > and were not retained. > > 30. The AIX development organization contacted other IBM employees who > were known or believed to have been involved with the development or > product release of AIX versions prior to 1991. In addition, IBM > managers and attorneys asked current members of the AIX development > organization whether they were aware of the location of pre-1991 > releases of AIX source code. No one asked was aware of any remaining > copies of pre-1991 AIX source code. > >Perhaps we should do something to raise awareness about the relevance of >legacy (not only UNIX) source code. And in any case, it is a pity that all >that historical information had been lost forever. > >I have always complained about this, and consider it the biggest drawback of >closed proprietary source code: it is OK that law protects developer interests >with the goal of promoting innovation and the public benefit at large. But it >is a lose for everybody whenever any such "protected" code is dumped into the >bin banning anyone else from further benefitting from or exploiting it, and >opening the road for opportunists to claim they "newly invented" it. > >Sic. Sigh. > j > All may not be lost. As it appears to me, TUHS has connections with Universities / Colleges and other types schools, as well as programmers, software engineers and the like. All we need to do is put the word out that TUHS is seeking pre-1991 AIX source code and it's bound to surface. If all else fails, I'm sure someone has a pre-1991 AIX binary distribution that could be disassembled (that is if a binary distribution can be disassembled back to a rough source code). To all TUHS members, As a part of the heritage of Unix, please search any and all your archives for pre-1991 AIX Source Code. Maybe, just maybe, a pre-1991 AIX Binary Distribution will suffice. Help IBM, TUHS, and in the end, the heritage of Unix. Thank you, James Falknor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: