will the real bill shannon please log out

[Dave Ihnat, Chicago, IL]

Perry,

The following is my own opinion, and should not be taken as the official
position of either AT&T Bell Laboratories, or Analysts International
Corporation.

I think you missed Bill's point.  Disclosure of *any* source code for which
you've signed a proprietary source license can be grounds for legal action.
I don't care how trivial the code fragment is--and an entire driver
isn't entirely trivial.  Companies have little recourse under the law
when it comes to nailing software thieves--patents, while available
(slowly), are expensive and difficult to acquire, and even more expensive and
difficult to defend.  A copyright is much more easily acquired, but
provides corresponding protection, or lack thereof.  Therefore, most
companies rely on non-disclosure contracts, such as any Unix(Tm) source
licensee signed.  And if presented with clear and defensible evidence of
contract violation, it's in the company's interests to pursue
prosecution to discourage such violations.  Finally, I might point out
that AT&T Bell Laboratories is moving into a new phase of existence
after January 1st, one in which they have to compete with others on
the open market; you could expect that they might be a little more
attentive to such violations, mightn't you?

All in all, I think Bill was doing everyone on the net a favor by
reminding us that these source licenses aren't just a technicality, but
both a professional obligation and a binding legal responsibility.

Incidentally, I hate to sound stuffy, but just two weeks ago, a young
guy at a convention made the comment that he'd just acquired a PDP
11/23; someone mentioned that I'm at AT&T Bell Labs, work with DEC
machines, etc.  So this young genius turned to me and asked, "You work
with Unix?" Well, yes... " Yeah?  Can you read the source?"  Well,
yes, I... " GREAT!  Can you send me a copy?"  Uh, what did you say?
"I'd like Unix on my system.  Can you download the source, or would
a tape do?"  The kid was young, so instead of walking away, I gave a
brief explanation of why you don't steal an operating system. (See
above.)  "Oh.  I guess you could look at it that way.  Well, can you
get me the source to RSX?"  I walked away.  What's worse, such incidents
are far from rare; and they are the reason I can't fault any company
for taking precautions.

		Oh well, off my soapbox now,

				Dave Ihnat
				Analysts International Corporation
		(contract site) AT&T Bell Telephone Laboratories
				Naperville, IL
				ihuxx!ignatz
				(312) 979-0946