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

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <524b27e5$0$59764$c3e8da3$e074e489 at news.astraweb.com>,
	JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> writes:
> On 13-10-01 15:47, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> 
>> And if they did he could find himself liable for millions of dollars in
>> fines and damages and possible jail time.
> 

Are all Canadians as naive as you are?

> HP would get so much bad PR from that, 

How does one get bad PR from protecting one's own property?

>                                        and the legal costs would be very
> high

HP already has lawyers on staff.  What makes you think the cost would be
high?

>        for a product HP didn't even know it had and which generates 0
> revenues at HP.

Two claims you can't possibly prove.

> 
> If the group/company had sent letters to HP requesting permission to
> make the source public and HP did not respond, wouldn't that signal that
> HP was not asserting ownership of the product and implicitely agreeing
> to it being public domain ?

No. There is no such thing in law as "implicit public domain".

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>