Re: OT: America's Army
On Sun, Jun 22, 2003 at 08:21:33PM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote:
> On Sun, 2003-06-22 at 19:37, Bijan Soleymani wrote:
> > Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> writes:
> >
> > > On Sun, 2003-06-22 at 18:02, Bijan Soleymani wrote:
> > > > Kevin McKinley <ronin2@bellatlantic.net> writes:
> > > >
> > > > > On Sun, 22 Jun 2003 16:44:34 -0400
> > > > > Bijan Soleymani <bijan@psq.com> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > When was this? It's pretty much been this way since the late 70s and
> > > > > > surely since the 80s. Unix was never free at first. Not until Linux
> > > > > > came around and the BSD's became free.
> > > > >
> > > > > Au contraire!
> > > > >
> > > > > When UNIX was first released it was free as in both freedom and beer.
> > > > >
> > > > > Then the lawyers got involved. :(
> > > >
> > > > It was developped by AT&T. Did they release it as free software, but
> > > > then revoke their free license. If so how did they take it back
> > > > later. Is it possible to retract a license like that? If they didn't
> > > > why did the BSD's have to get rid of all AT&T code.
> > >
> > > Well, if the "free license" was written to be revokable, then they
> > > could revoke it. Remember, as much as some people would like to
> > > think it, RMS didn't carve the GPL in stone with his finger, so
> > > that Moses could carry it down the Mountain...
> >
> > "You're free to use this software as long as we feel like it", doesn't
> > sound like a Free Software license to me.
>
> Who says it's a Free Software license? I sure did not...
>
> AT&T created it, AT&T had the right to how, when and under what
> conditions to disseminate it.
If I remember correctly they were forbidden from selling it due to
antitrust related government concerns.
Geordie.
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