I was reading Groklaw yesterday night when I came across this. It is a very sad thought to know that possibly tons of old/ancient code is being dumped in the trash bin. More so now since the advent of software patents: it may become very difficult to avoid a patent on a re-invention of the wheel if previous knowledge has been dumped. OK, the quote. It is from "the Todd Shaughnessy affidavit [PDF] from IBM that Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells requested they file when they turned over all the code and paperwork to SCO": 28. As I have noted above, IBM does not maintain revision control information for AIX source code pre-dating 1991. To the extent that any code for the AIX operating system (that did not duplicate the code already being produced in CMVC) was found during the search described in Paragraph 26-27 above, it was produced. Paragraphs 29-31 below describe additional search efforts IBM undertook to locate pre-1991 versions of AIX code. No versions of AIX pre-dating 1991 were found. 29. In the 1980s and early 1990s, IBM prepared vital records backups of AIX source code and transferred them to a remote storage location. At some point in the 1990s, the AIX vital records tapes were transferred to Austin, Texas. In late 2000, the tapes were determined to be obsolete, and were not retained. 30. The AIX development organization contacted other IBM employees who were known or believed to have been involved with the development or product release of AIX versions prior to 1991. In addition, IBM managers and attorneys asked current members of the AIX development organization whether they were aware of the location of pre-1991 releases of AIX source code. No one asked was aware of any remaining copies of pre-1991 AIX source code. Perhaps we should do something to raise awareness about the relevance of legacy (not only UNIX) source code. And in any case, it is a pity that all that historical information had been lost forever. I have always complained about this, and consider it the biggest drawback of closed proprietary source code: it is OK that law protects developer interests with the goal of promoting innovation and the public benefit at large. But it is a lose for everybody whenever any such "protected" code is dumped into the bin banning anyone else from further benefitting from or exploiting it, and opening the road for opportunists to claim they "newly invented" it. Sic. Sigh. j