CDROM-Artwork

[Julian H. Stacey]

Oliver Fromme wrote:
> [Trimmed Cc list.]
> 
> Julian H. Stacey wrote:
>  >   2, Page 1899 has it all capitals.  All through the book, the .rof
>  >   macro generating the automatic footer does it as caps.  Bell sold
>  >   Unix through a tedious chain of companies to whoever owns it this week.
> 
> Well, the chain isn't that long and tedious, basically AT&T,
> USL, Novell and The Open Group.  And even USL doesn't really
> count because it was just a "daughter" of AT&T.  The Open
> Group owns the trademark for 13 years now.  Saying "whoever
> owns it this week" isn't really justified, I think.

Just a jaundiced view, was more to be read between the lines, eg:
    "Who owns Unix?" issues have been around for decades: 1980 +-2
    Unix wasn't just a license, but a trade secret, Lyons V6 books
    got recalled & passed.  Universities were allowed sources,
    polytechnics not.  After Bell & USL there was Unix Europe etc
    in Putney, London that sold Unix licenses in the early 80s.
    SCO involvements arose.  Unix & BSD trademarks, The non disclosed
    BSD settlements, early patents issues eg SUID & compress. 

If BSD grows to interest marketers like Linux has, some predators
will migrate from Microsoft & Linux to BSD.  Some [big] users will
likely get opportunistically sued, There are always enough exploitative
people in business to assure that, ( & before anyone thinks "Can't
be sued, if done nothing wrong", Not so, One need do nothing wrong
& still be sued, eg:
	- To chance lots of dodgy claims (Per USA judge criticising SCO).
	- To waste time & disrupt a competitor's key personnel.
	- To impose expenses that may not be recovered before insolvency.

With USA government & European Patent Office in an arms race
for future software patent trade wars, programmers may need lots
of patent lawyers, considering src/ & ports/ & cdrom/dvd
& ftp sitess, Future software patent claims may well outweigh
trademark compliance admin costs.

-- 
Julian Stacey.  BSD Unix C Net Consultancy, Munich/Muenchen  http://berklix.com
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