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

Johnny Billquist bqt at softjar.se
Tue Oct 1 15:48:00 EDT 2013


On 2013-10-01 21:33, JF Mezei wrote:
> While simh may or may not have ties to DEC, it is simply a hardware
> emulator and has nothing to do with any operating system running on it.
>
> So licensing issues for simh itself are not related to licensing issues
> for PDP-11 operating systems.

Uh... The licensing of simh itself is a separate issue, I agree. 
However, the licensing of PDP-11 OSes are not unrelated to which 
"hardware" they are running on.

> Out of curiosity, was simh freely distributed while DEC was still alive
> ? If so, and if DEC did not send threatening lawyer letters to Mr
> Supnik, it would imply that DEC condoned this distribution.

Yes, simh was distributed freely. Yes, DEC condoned it.

> Similarly, if the current owner of the PDP 11 software were torelease
> the source into the wild, and HP didn't even notice, it would mean that
> HP did not assert its rights over the software and thus it can become
> public domain.

Uh? Say what??? That is *not* how software comes into the public domain. 
You need to slow down a little. If you believe this, then I suggest you 
contact XX2247, and offer to buy the software from them. You sign the 
papers and contracts, and then *you* break them. If you feel comfortable 
with doing that. If your belief is strong enough, and if you turn out 
right, then you have nothing to fear, right?

> Remember that one reason large corps send threatheing lawyer letters to
> people isn't to prevent the type of use being made, but rather to
> maintain/assert onwership of the product/IP to prevent it from becoming
> public domain though lack of action to protect one's own IP.
>
> So, if HP is unaware of its rights over PDP-11 or doesn't care, then
> making the source public domain should be easy, just publish it, and
> wait a few months to see if there are theathening letter from HP lawyers.
>
> At worse, the web site that published the software would be told to
> remove the links to the source code immediatly. But my guess is that HP
> would go beyond that (especially if the software were already in the
> wild and on many many web sites.)

At the worst, the people breaking the contracts and agreements will be 
paying HP large amounts of money.
Now, if you want to take that risk, then go ahead, and make yourself the 
legally responsible person for this.

Else try to instead help figure out how to make it legal, instead of 
suggesting that others should stand up and take pot shots for your 
amusement.

	Johnny




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