On Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 9:06 AM Bill Gunshannon via cctalk < [email protected]> wrote:
> On 7/29/20 8:20 PM, Warner Losh wrote: > > > > > > On Wed, Jul 29, 2020 at 3:00 PM Bill Gunshannon via cctalk > > <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > > On 7/29/20 4:22 PM, Bob Smith wrote: > > > I am not sure I understand your "as it turns out there was only > > one" Bill. > > > Am I correct in assuming you are talking about DEC owned, and > meaning > > > that Bob Supnik one? > > > > > > John Wilson's Ersatz 11, aka E11, was and is a great functioning > > > emulator, but not owned by DEC. > > > > > > > We were discussing the Mentec Hobbyist License. It never covered > > E11 or anything other than the Supnik Emulator when he was a DEC > > employee and DEC actually owned the IP. > > > > > > How much of the IP does DEC need to own (the license is unclear on this > > point)? Unless they conveyed the Copyrights to Supnik in writing (which > > is possible), they (well their successors in interest) still have an > > ownership interest in the emulator. > > This has been done to death years ago. DEC gave up all ownership of > what is now known as SIMH. Look at the sources. There are no DEC > Copyrights. There are Bob Supnik Copyrights from 1993 forward. > > > One could make a case that the > > wording of the license is imprecise enough > > The wording is only imprecise to those who do not wish to follow it. > It is, by far, the cleanest and plainest written Hobbyist License I > have ever seen. > > > (it didn't exclude > successors > > in interest, for example). > > Successors to who? It stopped being the property of DEC before DEC went > away. It became the sole property of Bob Supnik as reflected in the > Copyright messages contained in the source files. > > > Though finding out would require > litigation, > > which is an expensive game... and is apparently against the wishes of > > Mentec, at least as expressed privately over the years... > > Expressed privately to who? > > > > > The problem with the license being that it's written in a bit too plain > > language which makes it a bit ambiguous once DEC was sold to Compaq and > > then to HP since they are a successor interest for many other things... > > The EMULATOR in question ceased to be DEC's before DEC was bought by > Compaq. They were never owners of or in control of SIMH. Period. > > And with this, I am done. At least until this silly question comes up > again in the future as I am sure it will. > > bill > >
