To Al Kossow at bitsavers

[Paul Koning]

> On Nov 14, 2015, at 8:27 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at Update.UU.SE> wrote:
> 
> On 2015-11-15 01:56, Mark J. Blair wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> On Nov 14, 2015, at 15:56, rod <rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I am of the opinion that RT,RSX M & D etc could be dealt with in exactly the same way as the very successful OpenVMS Hobbyists program.
>> 
>> Has anybody contacted the RT-11 rights holder to see if they might be interested in a program like that? I think it could only work with their blessing and cooperation.
> 
> Jerome knows very well who owns it, and have tried various ways to put it into the public domain. Unfortunately, him wanting it to happen is not really enough to make it happen.
> 
> We need HP to release things.

HP?  I know HP acquired VMS, but I always had the impression that all PDP11 stuff (except IAS???) went to Mentec, not HP.  So it's Mentec or its successors who own it, and who would have to do the licensing.  That might be anything from "no" to a hobbyist license to whatever they want.  Public domain?  I suppose one could imagine that being done, but it's rare for stuff to be released into the public domain.  A generous license of some sort is more common; open source is one good example, hobbyist or "not for profit" licenses are somewhat more restrictive but still not a bad deal.

	paul