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Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program

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luser droog <luser.droog@gmail.com> writes:

> On Friday, June 19, 2020 at 5:26:52 PM UTC-5, Malcolm McLean wrote:
>
>> On Friday, 19 June 2020 21:33:30 UTC+1, Ben Bacarisse  wrote:
>>
>>> Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> Most of the time you are either writing code for a paid project, in which
>>>> case it is confidential, or you are writing code as a public service,
>>>> in which case it ought to be made public domain.  However Richard Stallman
>>>> decided that it was his life's mission to destroy Microsoft, and started
>>>> the viral licence craze.
>>>
>>> Interesting that you use a pejorative term for it (two, in fact).  RMS's
>>> "life mission" was established by the GNU Manifesto, published six
>>> months before Microsoft released Window v1 (which few people used and
>>> even fewer remember) so I would be surprised if Microsoft was even on
>>> his radar in the spring of 1985.
>>
>> You're right.  The initial target was people selling Unix systems, and
>> smaller machines are mentioned as an aside as too much trouble to
>> program for now.  MIcrosoft became the bogeyman slightly later.
>
> My understanding of the story is that the instigating incident was
> a piece of software called Scribe.  It was a typesetting engine with
> an advanced markup language using stylesheets.  It was developed as
> a PhD project and then when the student graduated he revoked the
> earlier licence and wanted to sell new licences for existing
> installations.  I.e., after everybody was using the freely-distributed
> version they suddenly had to pay if they wanted to keep using it.

The story I heard is a bit more complicated.  Scribe was
developed by Brian Reid while he was a graduate student at CMU.
Brian agreed to transfer rights to Scribe to a company called
Unilogic, which was founded by Michael Shamos.  The agreement
with Unilogic allowed Unilogic to sell Scribe to businesses for
(I think) whatever amount they chose, but mandated that Scribe
had to be made available to educational institutions "for a
nominal fee".  What Brian didn't know when he signed the deal is
that in the legal world "nominal fee" is understood to mean any
price less than half the usual price.  Unilogic set the price of
Scribe to $25,000 per copy, and $10,000 per copy for educational
institutions.  This was not what Brian had expected;  he felt
betrayed by what Shamos and Unilogic had done but legally there
was nothing he could do.

Disclaimer: I have no first-hand knowledge of what went on and
don't know which parts, if any, of the above are true.  The
comments above are simply what I remember of what was told to me
many years ago.  The people who told me were graduate students at
CMU overlapping the time Brian Reid was there, so they were in a
good position to know, but I don't know anything about it other
than what they told me.

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A question about having a coauthor in a program The Real Non Homosexual <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2020-06-16 18:09 -0700
  Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Helm <nospam@invalid.please> - 2020-06-17 21:19 -0400
  Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2020-06-18 04:07 -0700
    Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2020-06-18 14:40 +0000
      Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2020-06-19 08:46 +0200
        Speaking only for oneself... (Was: A question about having a coauthor in a program) gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2020-06-19 06:58 +0000
        Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2020-06-19 09:23 -0700
          Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2020-06-19 18:30 +0000
          Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2020-06-19 21:33 +0100
            Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2020-06-19 21:19 +0000
            Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2020-06-19 15:26 -0700
              Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program luser droog <luser.droog@gmail.com> - 2020-06-20 05:39 -0700
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program The Real Non Homosexual <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2020-06-20 14:57 -0700
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2020-06-22 06:21 -0700
              Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2020-06-22 16:16 +0000
            Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2020-06-22 06:22 -0700
            Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2020-06-22 16:15 +0000
              Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2020-06-22 17:19 +0000
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2020-06-22 10:42 -0700
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2020-06-22 19:17 +0000
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2020-06-22 14:43 -0700
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2020-06-23 23:05 +0100
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2020-06-23 15:36 -0700
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program The Real Non Homosexual <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2020-06-23 20:18 -0700
          Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2020-06-21 16:33 +0200
            Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2020-06-21 11:52 -0700
              Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2020-06-21 22:31 +0200
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2020-06-21 13:45 -0700
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2020-06-21 23:01 +0200
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2020-06-21 22:12 +0100
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2020-06-21 16:18 -0700
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2020-06-22 08:43 +0200
                Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2020-06-22 03:39 -0700
  Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Anton Shepelev <antoff.txt@gmail.com> - 2020-06-18 19:03 +0300
  Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program Real Troll <real.troll@trolls.com> - 2020-06-21 11:16 -1000
    Re: A question about having a coauthor in a program The Real Non Homosexual <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2020-06-21 17:20 -0700
      [OT] Homosexual (Was: A question about having a coauthor in a program) the "Swampster" <fortytwo@xs4all.nl> - 2020-06-22 07:44 +0000
        Re: [OT] Homosexual Boris Dorestand <bdorestand@example.com> - 2020-06-22 07:47 -0300

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