On 23-5-2012 22:24, Dimitry Sibiryakov wrote: > 23.05.2012 21:00, Leyne, Sean wrote: >> When AT&T had resources which were developing Unix it might have been >> possible to reach out to them. >> >> But given that is no longer the case, I think it more likely that we could >> raise Dennis Ritchie from the dead (Dennis Ritchie is father of C >> programming language, he died in October 2011) before we would get an answer >> from AT&T. > > In this case we can consider this file to be abandonware. >
That is BS and the wrong attitude to go about (potential) IP problems. Abandonware does not exist, and taking something as your own because you can't contact the owner is evil. My non-lawyer opinion is that header files are not subject to copyright. This is confirmed by a number of lawsuits here in Europe, where - if I understood it correctly - it was stated that the definition of an API (eg a header file) is not a creative work and therefor not copyrightable; only the implementation itself can be copyrighted. Do note that ATT itself states that SfIO is release under an opensource license: http://www.research.att.com/software_tools They also state that the entire package is covered by the license: http://www2.research.att.com/sw/download/ Before downloading you have to accept the EPL license. Now that package does contain a stdio.h (in src/lib/sfio/stdio_s) with the 'scary' license, but in my opinion that is overruled by the fact that the ATT website itself says it is under EPL before you download it. If you want to know for sure, contact either g...@research.att.com (feedback link on the download page) or at...@att.com (licensing contact listed on the main page). Mark -- Mark Rotteveel ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ Firebird-Devel mailing list, web interface at https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/firebird-devel
