Pocket Guide to Unix - copyrights

[Geoff Kuenning]

There seems to be some confusion here regarding copyrights.  To quote many
lawyers who have written on the subject, "a copyright protects only the
expression of an idea, not the idea itself".  This means that you can write
a pocket guide to Unix without violating Bell's copyright, as long as you
don't quote the manuals verbatim.  I suppose that Bell might be able to
hassle you if you listed the switches in exactly the same order or format
as either the manual page or the "Usage:" message, but I'd bet on you to win
the court case.

Perhaps a more interesting question is which version of Unix are you going to
publish the guide for?  "stty", to name just one program, differs between
just about every version of Unix ever released.

A final note:  my opinion on completeness.  I use a pocket guide to help me
remember how to use little-used options and commands.  A quick reference
guide such as the Yates one, which only lists the most common information,
is useless--I *ALREADY* know the options to "rm".  The Pixel guide is a good
starting point, but omits much useful information.  Nevertheless, I used it
a lot before it was obsoleted by my switch to System V.