On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 02:22:43PM +0100, Matthew Seaman wrote: > On 16/06/2011 13:52, Peter Vereshagin wrote: > > > > unix is a trademark of novell.com. > > Unix (note capitalization) is actually a trademark of the Open Group: > http://www.unix.org/
In case it was lost in the informative explanations of others, here's the short version: * UNIX is a trademark of the Open Group. Unix is not. * The UNIX source code's copyright is held by . . . damn. It keeps changing. I remember that it was once owned by Novell, but I think they might have sold it after the whole SCO fiasco. FreeBSD uses BSD Unix source, not SysV Unix source, both of which are descended from original AT&T UNIX source -- but the BSD Unix source is distributed under the BSD License, while the SysV Unix source copyright is tightly controlled under proprietary terms. For any of the above to be called UNIX, it must meet the Open Group's certification standards and (more importantly) have some certification fee paid, as I understand it. -- Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
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