🚀 go-pugleaf

Bob Eager <news...@eager.cx> writes:
> Exactly. Might be worth recounting this story (possibly a repeat, but...)
>
> About 15 years ago I had a need for a particular program on a PC. It was 
> a one-off, and it had to be in BASIC, as the machine wasn't connected to 
> anything else - all I could do was move small files using INTERLNK/
> INTERSVR (remember those?)
>
> I searched the Internet and found an ideal program. I downloaded it, 
> transferred it to the PC and it did exactly what I wanted.
>
> Being me, I had a look at the source code. The more I looked at it, the 
> more mystified I became by the style of programming. It was how I might 
> have written it.
>
> Then it hit me. I *had* written it, a further 15 years before. I had sent 
> it to various people but not bothered keeping a copy. It had come back to 
> me!

former co-worker at science center and research was responsible for the
internal network (larger than arpanet/internet from just about the
beginning until sometime mid-80s) ... past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
which was also used for the corporate sponsored university network
(also larger than arpanet/internet for a time) some past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#bitnet

in the 80s, he had left IBM and was working for company that did a lot
of real-time stuff and he was working with major real-time system and
noticed code that he thot was familiar. The supervisor contained module
that was seemed same as his RSCS/VNET MSUP routine (from 15yrs
earlier), a nearly line-for-line translation from 360 assembler to
C, included retaining the original comments. past refs
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006y.html#32 "The Elements of Programming Style"
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#34 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

His RSCS/VNET MSUP dates back to the 60s, before 23JUNE1969 unbundling
and starting to separately charge for lots of stuff, including software
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#unbundling

after the unbundling announce, IBM had internal people going back and
adding "COPYRIGHT" statements to the front of every source routine.
example from long ago and far away:


*********************************************************************** 00002000
***                                                                 *** 00003000
***           5748-XE1 - COPYRIGHT IBM CORPORATION - 1978, 1979     *** 00004000
***           LICENSED MATERIAL - PROGRAM PROPERTY OF IBM           *** 00005000
***           REFER TO COPYRIGHT INSTRUCTIONS:  FORM G120-2083      *** 00006000
***                                                                 *** 00007000
*********************************************************************** 00008000

more recently, I was somewhat surprised when something similar happened
to IETF/ISOC Internet standards documents ... something about original
authors retains rights (and use may require obtaining the authors
permissions) ... previously IETF had made transition from no copyright
notice to:

Full Copyright Statement

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (xxxx).  All Rights Reserved.

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
translate it into languages other than English.

The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

... snip ...

I had done some work with documents under the above copyright and then
was contacted by author of various RFC standards that I had used ... and
tried to apply the latest IETF/ISOC copyright retroactively to all his
earlier RFCs. I had to spend over a thousand (of my own money) on
copyright lawyer to explain it to the author and his representative.

some past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005s.html#5 Internet today -- what's left for hobbiests
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#12 Reverse or inverse ARP from windows/linux - no way (!?!?)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#56 Reverse or inverse ARP from windows/linux - no way (!?!?)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010o.html#83 The IETF is probably the single element in the global equation of technology competition than has resulted in the INTERNET
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011.html#83 Today, the IETF Turns 25
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015.html#95 56kbit modems

-- 
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970