16 Mar
2023
16 Mar
'23
12:41 a.m.
I think the real risk is not measured in dollars, but potential damage
to reputations, ill will, the perception that it's not legal or kosher, etc.
So I completely understand this well-founded caution.
However if anyone was interested in approaching the license holders and
seeing if licenses could be obtained or purchased, I'm interested in that.
On 03/15/2023 04:30 PM, Warner Losh wrote:
On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 3:56 PM steve jenkin <sjenkin(a)canb.auug.org.au
<mailto:sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au>> wrote:
"What “uses” would SysV codebase have now?" may be a better Q.
A System V release 2 might have very limited use (old VAXen are all it
ran on from
AT&T though there were at least a few ports: 68k for sure).
The successor code base of OpenIndiana which forked from OpenSolaris
which was System Vr4 plus a bunch... And that's open... illumos is
still using that for its distribution... They'd have been totally
dead, imho, were it not for OpenZFS using illumos for so long as the
reference platform (that's changed, so now Linux and FreeBSD are the
reference platforms, though one of those two is more equal than the
other).
But the successor code base being open isn't quite the same as System
V being open. There's no 'orphan exception' or 'abandonware
rider'
that would allow us to distribute this without any legal risk.
But there's the rub: what's the legal risk. The legal risk here is
that somebody could show up and assert they have rights to the
software, and that we're distributing it illegally. Actual damages
likely are near $0 these days, but statutory damages could become
quite excessive. But to get damages, one would likely need a lot of
money to fight it, and there's not any kind of real revenue stream
from System V today (let alone from System V r2). Plus, were this
successfully prosecuted, it's not like that would increase that
revenue stream: TUHS has no assets, so the current IP owner would have
to somehow assess there was blood to be had from this stone, which is
unlikely... So, how do you rate the risk of a low-probability, high
damage outcome vs the near certainty of a no-damage outcome. Since
it's none of our butt's but Warren's, he gets to decide his comfort
zone here. :)
So the risk of adverse consequences is likely low, but not zero were
we to distribute this without a license to do so. There's plenty of
others that are doing so today, but that's between the others and
whatever IP owners
Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, and this isn't legal advice...
Warner