"Giles Turner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 8/14/07, Dennis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > since I´ m not very well informed about the history of Unix, I just wanted
> > to ask: Could Novell come up one day and say "parts of Solaris is ours" ?
> >
> > Thanks in advance?
>
> No. Sun's license goes way back to AT&T days with System V release 4.
> Novell bought the rights to UNIX from AT&T after that.
NO, it is a bit more complex:
Sun & AT&T did have ~ 50:50 rights on SVr4 but as AT&T did "invent" UNIX, AT&T
did still request royalties from Sun and did not allow Sun to sell/give-away
sub licenses.
AFAIR, Sun did start to negotiate a contract with AT&T in 1993 but at the same
time, AT&T was selling USG (including the building and all employees) to Novell.
Sun then did continue the negotioations with Novell and in 1994 payed (AFAIR
the equivalent of 3 years Royalties) 82.5 million US$ giving Sun the rights:
- Sun needs never ever need to pay royalties again.
- Sun is allowed to sub license binaries or derivates to other
companies/people
- Sun is allowed to sub license sources or derivates to other
companies/people
- Sun gets an own right on the UNIX development
Sun's lawyers did take 6 years to find out that this contract gives Sun the
right to OpenSource all parts from SVr4 and Solaris that have a Copyright on
Sun, AT&T or both but no other Copyright notice.
Before the Sun contract was done, Novell did give away the rights on the brand
UNIX to the OpenGroup.
In 1995, Novell did sell USG (including the building and all employees) to SCO.
As this was the same thing as done earlyer from AT&T to Novell, it is
questionable whether Novell still owns any rights on SVr4.
Later, SCO did sell USG (including the building and all employees) to Caldera
UNIX (a Linux company). SCO also did sell the name SCO to Caldera and then used
the name "Tarantella". Aprox. 2 years ago, Sun did aquire Tarantella.
Conclusion:
While it is questionable whether Novell still owns any rights on SVr4, Sun
definitely owns full rights on SVr4.
Jörg
--
EMail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (uni)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) Blog: http://schily.blogspot.com/
URL: http://cdrecord.berlios.de/old/private/ ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily
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