[Info-vax] [Attn: HP Employees] PDP-11 OS hobbyist licensing

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <l2f5s4$v79$1 at dont-email.me>,
	Simon Clubley <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> writes:
> On 2013-10-01, johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk <johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> Are you able to quote chapter and verse wrt "emulators owned by DEC"?
>>
> 
> Yes. I have a copy of that licence and went looking for it online. This
> was the first link I found after searching for text in the licence:
> 
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/01/msg00039.html
> 
> If you want it in it's original context in which most people would have
> first seen it (you may need a magnifying glass :-)):
> 
> http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/pdp11emu.html
> 

If people are really interested I still have copies of the License as it
was distrbuted with various packages of OS software.  The files are all
July 31, 1997 so I assume that was the date contained in the tar file
that contained the software and the license.

>> I was aware of goings on related to a couple of PDP11 emulators inside DEC,
>> and neither of them was SIMH. Doesn't mean that SIMH activity wasn't going on
>> in parallel, mind you. But I have no recollection of word of DEC offering SIMH
>> ever reaching UK customers.
> 
> The licence says _owned_ by DEC. It doesn't say anything about been _sold_
> by DEC. :-) It was a personal project by it's original author while a DEC
> employee.
> 

I was involved with the PDP-11 from around 1980 and I don't remember DEC
ever offering an emulator, commercially or otherwise.  I know Bob Supnik
worked for DEC, but I always thought the emulator was his pet project.
Which probably explains why he was allowed tot ake it with him when he
left and it has no earlier copyrights than his.

bill


-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>