3 Feb
2007
3 Feb
'07
6:41 a.m.
Apple did NOT go to the nicety of licensing OS X as a
version of
UNIX.
There are two completely different issues here.
One is, is OSX derived (in the copyright-law sense) from Bell Labs UNIX
source code?
The other is, does OSX have the right to use the UNIX trademark?
Neither one implies the other. The way you use "licensing" seems to
imply you're talking about the latter, but your argument based on
derivation of code seems to imply you're talking about the former.
Since Darwin is open source, Apple clearly believes the former is
false; they'd be putting themselves at enormous risk if they
open-sourced anything they didn't have good grounds for saying was free
of encumbered IP. Just because there is a path via which Bell Labs
UNIX code *could* have gotten into Darwin doesn't mean it *did*.
In any case, WHOEVER now owns the rights to UNIX would
probably be
interested in the fact that some version of their code is being sold
without license.
I would be very interested if you would be so kind as to point out
exactly what code in Darwin you think requires a UNIX source license.
You refer to it as "fact", so you presumably have an example....
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