Letter from Dennis Ritchie

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=50 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="027000d2esnpes.gif"> <div> <B>Letter from Dennis Ritchie</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=394 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Trying to release old versions of Unix</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>This is the text of a letter I received from </B><A HREF="http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/~dmr" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/~dmr"><U><B>Dennis Ritchie</B></U></A><B> after he saw this web site and </B><A HREF="http://discuss.userland.com/msgReader$8583" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://discuss.userland.com/msgReader$85"><U><B>read</B></U></A><B> about the process I went through to get VisiCalc posted. Reproduced here with permission.</B></div> <bR> <div> 8/25/99:</div> <bR> <div> The first real attempt to release Unix for less-controlled</div> <div> use was with our early research versions, </div> <div> (say up through Seventh Edition and 32V).  I began the</div> <div> attempt a while after USL had been  spun off,</div> <div> I think during the USL vs BSDI and then UC Berkeley</div> <div> lawsuit.  I had the Intellectual Property agreement</div> <div> between AT&T and USL, and to me it looked fairly clear</div> <div> that what (amongst other things) was being turned over</div> <div> was rights to code, trademarks, etc. in System III and</div> <div> successors.  So I thought I might pull a fast one,</div> <div> and get a release from AT&T for the code for the</div> <div> research systems, since (it seemed to me) that we</div> <div> owned it.  This looked like fun, and might short-circuit</div> <div> the bad press AT&T was getting about the suit, even</div> <div> though USL was mostly independent by then.</div> <bR> <div> There was a several-year gap between the research</div> <div> systems I was interested in, and that named in</div> <div> the agreement, and it seemed that what I asked</div> <div> for was separate from the USL product.</div> <bR> <div> The lawyers basically agreed that my reading was </div> <div> probably correct and defensible, but one phrase,</div> <div> which was approximately "and test versions...",</div> <div> seemed to give an anchor for USL to argue</div> <div> that the early research systems were in fact covered.</div> <div> Particularly since there was a lawsuit in progress,</div> <div> the AT&T lawyers were probably well-advised not</div> <div> to get involved in a sudden claim that the starting point</div> <div> of the BSD system was now somehow released.</div> <bR> <div> Once USL was sold to Novell, I tried again directly</div> <div> with Novell, making discreet inquiries.  The suit</div> <div> had been settled by then.  The folks I talked to</div> <div> unanimously thought that they actually couldn't</div> <div> see what harm it would do (and generally thought</div> <div> it a nice idea), but the Novell lawyers had some qualms that</div> <div> were never really articulated;  no one wanted</div> <div> to be the one to sign.  (Your account to Winer</div> <div> is reminiscent here).</div> <bR> <div> The next thing to happen was that John Lions,</div> <div> the author of the commentary on the Sixth Edition</div> <div> system, was becoming ill with a progressive neurological disease.</div> <div> Prompted by Peter Salus and Berny Goodhart,</div> <div> I asked about a republication of Lions's "suppressed"</div> <div> work from about 1975.  The answer from Novell</div> <div> was about the same (good idea, but Something Bad</div> <div> Might Conceivably Happen).</div> <bR> <div> Finally, USL was sold by Novell to SCO.  I wrote to</div> <div> Mike Tilson, an old acquaintance from Usenix</div> <div> and elsewhere, and a VP of the company.  He was interested,</div> <div> though when I first wrote, the sale had not been</div> <div> consummated and the company couldn't think</div> <div> about such things then.  He did introduce the</div> <div> idea to Doug Michels, closer to the center of</div> <div> the Unix acquisition.   We kept working on this;</div> <div> in fact Lion's book was republished by Peer-to-Peer</div> <div> in 1977, barely in time for John to appreciate</div> <div> that this had occurred.  (He died last year.)</div> <bR> <div> More recently, SCO has been issuing licenses for</div> <div> the early Unix versions, including source (not</div> <div> for free and not without a bit of hassle, though).</div> <div> But better than nothing.</div> <bR> <div> The release of the C compilers was accomplished</div> <div> much more easily--I just did it.  The Unix kernel</div> <div> code in particular has had at least one lawsuit</div> <div> associated with it, and there are traceable components</div> <div> that extend even until today, but this compiler isn't</div> <div> used any more, and it is less charged with IP issues.</div> <div> I figured there was no one outside who could possibly</div> <div> be worried, and that I could deal with any inside issues.</div> <bR> <div> Side observations--the timing of your and my releases</div> <div> seems coincidental.    It was interesting to see the SJMerc</div> <div> article and the others.  (I got a relatively huge hit count</div> <div> on the home page in the days after it and the /. article).</div> <bR> <div>      Dennis Ritchie</div> <bR> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=36 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="027000d2esnpes.gif"> <div>                                              For more History see the book <A HREF="http://www.bricklin.com/bontech" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.bricklin.com/bontech"><U><I>Bricklin on Technology</I></U></A>.</div> <div> © Copyright 1999-2009 by Daniel Bricklin. 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