Date : Sat, 14 May 1983 19:35:12 EDT (Sat)
From : Rick Conn <rconn@brl.arpa>
Subject: ZCPR2 in the PD
I had responded to Jay indirectly thru Paul Grupp ear-
lier, so the rest of INFO-CPM did not see the reply. Things have
changed since the reply, and I would like to answer the question
for anyone else who is interested as well.
ZCPR2 was NOT originally in the PD. While I wanted it to
be available to everyone who wanted it, I also wanted to retain
some rights to it under the copyright laws. I read a document
(put out on the net earlier) on the subject, and concluded that
both goals would be met if ZCPR2 was released to SIG/M specifi-
cally. Being a user group that charged no membership fee and
that distributed its software to anyone who wanted it, the
release to SIG/M effectively, but not formally, constituted a
release to the PD. SIG/M however is NOT the PD, per se, so, in
theory (my theory, that is), the copyright protection was in ef-
fect. While I view SIG/M as being equated to the PD, SIG/M is
the Special Interest Group in Microcomputers of the ACG-NJ and
NOT the PD. Note that on the SIG/M release form, SIG/M's right
to ZCPR2 is documented.
I feel that this did provide the copyright protection I
desired, but I never had any intent to pursue enforcement. I
just wanted to see if this would slow down or stop anyone from
enterprising on ZCPR2, and it didn't seem to make much differ-
ence. That's OK, tho, because I don't feel I was being hurt by
it, and the only ones who may be are those who buy it and later
find out that they could have had it for free. The old CAVEAT
EMPTOR philosophy.
June's Microsystems contains an article on ZCPR2 which I
wrote, and, along with helping to educate the user community on
the existance of ZCPR2, it announces ZCPR2 as being in the Public
Domain (as opposed to SIG/M). I believe that this public state-
ment constitutes a formal release to the public domain, and the
full intent of the original release of ZCPR2 is realized. Anyone
who was held back by the copyright notice in the ZCPR2 source
codes (IF anyone was) can now proceed and quote the article if
they need support.
I think you can see what the experiment showed (NOT
proved). I still encourage the use of ZCPR2, and I now view it
as being formally released to the PD with any lack of protection
that may accompany such release. The bottom line, I feel, is
that the interests of the public are served, and was the original
intent with the release to SIG/M. The difference is that no one
should find them restricted wrt ZCPR2 use in any way.
Rick