Where's the (c) on unix? - legality of posting sources

[Geoff Kuenning]

>	Surely with modern technology it would be possible to reverse
>	engineer Coke.  Apparently no one thinks it's worth the trouble,
>	they'd rather market a slightly different taste and hope the
>	the public likes it.

		-- D.A. Seifert

Actually, I have heard that modern technology still isn't good enough.  You
can find out what the ingredients are, but you cannot figure out what order
the process steps were done in, and apparently this makes a difference in the
taste.  (I only know what I am told).

>	UNIX(tm) is a little different.  AT&T will not sell it to you
>	unless you sign the document saying you promise not to tell.
>	Thus if you have a legal copy of UNIX to reverse engineer,
>	you have promised not to tell. (If you have the source, you
>	wouldn't have to reverse engineer it...)

Actually, this is no longer true.  It is very easy to get a UNIX binary without
ever signing a license.  It is also possible to dial up to a public-access
UNIX system (e.g., any university) and disassemble /bin and possibly the
kernel.  Bell (okay, AT&T since Jan 1, but I still think of them as Bell)
might be able to sue the operator of that system because it is possible to
run a public-access UNIX with very limited read permissions on /unix and /bin,
but many people don't.  Bell would probably have a problem proving *which*
public-access system was the source of the disassembly (so to speak).  And, of
course, anybody can "disassemble" a shell script.

>>	Does all this discussion about trade secrets and publication imply
>>	that the publication of the V6 kernel by (I believe) the University
>>	of New South Wales made V6 public domain?  Could I type in the code
>>	and sell it without paying Bell?

>	No, because you had to prove you had a UNIX source license before
>	getting the NSW UNIX books - i.e., if you had the books, you already
>	1) paid Bell and 2) agreed not to distribute the code.
		- Guy Harris

Not me!  I got the UNIX books as a gift (I certainly won't tell who) and
probably illegally, since they were Xeroxed (which doesn't affect their
effect on the trade-secret issue).  Furthermore, I know for a fact that at
least some universities have used the Lyons books in courses and allowed the
students to keep them.  This would also seem to make the trade secrets
nonsecret, since (1) one doubts the students were required to sign
nondisclosure agreements, and (2) as I understand it, trade-secret law
requires that the books be turned in when the students leave the organization
with the UNIX license.

Furthermore, for whatever reason, many people out there have illegitimate
copies of the source tapes.  I have personally seen illegal copies of V7 and
System III (not mine!).  Most universities have student employees who, in
practice, have access to system consoles and 'root' accounts;  many of these
people have made tapes themselves in the wee hours of the night, often in the
spring of their senior year.  The same applies to commercial organizations.
The 'secret' has leaked in many ways, and it would be very hard for Bell to
prove who was the source of the leak in the general case.  Again, in any case,
all that affects is who gets sued, not the validity of the trade secret.

BTW, I for one am not motivated by unhappiness with Bell's pricing to void the
secret.  I *would* like to see decent support by an organization which gets
a large fraction of its revenue from UNIX (i.e., has a financial incentive to
care about us little guys).  If that happens by having UNIX wind up in the
public domain, great.  But in general I think that the negative effects of
a public-domain UNIX (mainly loss of Bell-enforced standardization) far
exceed the positive effects.  And I also think Bell deserves a profit on a
successful product that they have spent millions developing (I am refering to
the salaries of all those "research" types who spent time writing utilities
instead of inventing new flavors of transistor).

	Geoff Kuenning
	Callan Data Systems
	...!ihnp4!sdcrdcf!trwrb!wlbr!callan!geoff

Lawyer?  Me?  I can't even spell "Jeff" right!