[HECnet] long term paks

[Thomas DeBellis]

I don't know if that's the whole story; it's not just that monster 
OS/360.  I believe also DOS/360, DOS/VS, MVS, VM/370, and TSS/370; I 
don't know about TPF.  MTS would be cool (but it isn't IBM).

I believe the z versions of the above have to be licensed, even for 
Hercules.  There was some class action about allowing this, but I don't 
know how it all turned out.  That's surprising given the Amdahl decisions.

Yes, I have a very large dent in my skull from a lawyer in our company 
about copyrights.  This was even for firmware that would never see the 
light of day.

A number of sources for Tops-20 assemble the copyright right into the 
executable in low memory so that if you try to type it out, you first 
get the text (followed by gibberish).  Use of GLXLIB will force this.  
I'm not sure if it is in Galaxy or the EXEC, but one of my favorite 
comments of the aforementioned code is, "Somebody could steal Tops-20!!"

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> On 3/13/20 4:35 PM, Paul Koning wrote:
>
> I know some old OS/360 versions are freely available, but that's for a different reason.  They are in the public domain because IBM exposed the sources without copyright notice, at a time when US law said that absence of notice meant the item is in the public domain.  The same applies to various other software; CDC's COS comes to mind.
>
> The law changed quite a while ago, but when I started in the software profession it was pounded into our skulls to put copyright notices on stuff because back then it actually made a real difference.
>
> 	paul
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> On Mar 13, 2020, at 4:24 PM, Thomas DeBellis <tommytimesharing at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I should add, however, that even IBM has come to understand the value of having people understanding and adoring their operating systems and maximizing the knowledgeable user base.  Otherwise, finding people to do maintenance can be problematic (== $$$) or impossible.
>>
>> My understanding is that while you can't get the most current version of the various 390 based OS's, you can get older ones for free for hobbyist usage.  OK...
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