9fans archive / 1998 / 10 / 95 /    prev next

From: G. David Butler gdb@dbS...
Subject: [9fans] Re: failed installation of the 3 diskette system
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 06:45:04 -0600

>From: Richard Uhtenwoldt <roo@riv...> (replace roo with ru)
>G. David Butler writes:
>>I used to provide a distribution set, but I don't any longer.
>>If you want to know why we (anybody with the shrink-wrap
>>license) can NOT, see http://www.dbSystems.com
>
>okay, I read that last Web page, and the shrinkwrap license.
>seems to me that you could distribute a diff against the
>standard distribution set.  (the xdelta program, an alternative
>to "diff" and "patch", can deal gracefully with binary files.)

Since making any source available in a public forum is
strictly prohibited, so would a binary "diff".

[The idea that a boodle is so useless to anybody without
the source was promoted by the developers to allow some
freedom, but I'm sure the attorneys at Lucent were not
consulted.  One could argue that since they (the
developers acting as officials of Lucent) have
relinquished their rights of redistribution so we should
take advantage of it.  I would NOT want to be sitting
in a court room trying to make that argument!]

Since Lucent is not bound by the shrink-wrap license, they can
do whatever they want with their property including publishing
the documents and updates on their web site plan9.bell-labs.com.

We, on the other hand, are bound by:

"Except as described in this section, you may not USE, copy, or
TRANSFER the software, in SOURCE or in OBJECT form, or any
MODIFICATION or DERIVATIVE work thereof, in whole or IN PART
to any THIRD party."

except if we have a way of determining that someone else has
purchased the source code then:

"You may transmit derived or modified portions of this software
specifically to other licensees of AT&T (sic) who are bound
by the terms of this Agreement..."

I guess I should find a way (the xor trick, perhaps) to encrypt
the multi-ethernet changes on my site to be fully complient.

David Butler
gdb@dbS...