[Info-vax] VLF: The 35th Anniversary Communique from the VMS Liberation Front

[JF Mezei]

On 12-10-27 12:06, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:

> I don't think it's that simple or easy!  VMS makes use of intellectual 
> property (Patents and/or Copyrights) that is licensed by third parties

If you have signed a deal to allow Digital to use some routines you work
in VMS in the 1990s, wouldn't you, or the owner of VMS want to have that
deal updated after change of ownership to allow the new owner to issue a
new version of VMS ?

If you look at .H files in VMS, in the case of the X window stuff, there
are clear messages that say that portions are copyright of the X
consortium (or whatever). In fact, some even include HP and others in
the copyright that lists the contributors of X.

I'd say it shouldn't be very hard to find the list of modules that used
by permission and can't be made opensourced without owner's consent.

>From there, it is a matter of finding the owner of that IP to get their
consent.

Now, open sourcing VMS may not mean open sourcing various applications
on it. If the DHCP server can't be freed, then don't include it in the
open source listings. There are plenty of open sourced DHCP servers that
could be ported to VMS if the dead one won't allow to be open sourced.

Consider that the operating system itself was written by Digital at a
time when buying IP from others was not common since there were no others.

Video drivers had been reverse engineered by our esteemed FredK (rip)
and should not be tied to restrictions by the video card manufacturer.