[sebhc] source code development projects, SEBHC copyright policy and HDOS 3.0x

[Jack Rubin]

There seem to be lots of potential or in-progress software projects
brewing here. Patrick has offered to set up a source code repository and
I urge anyone involved in shared or group software development to take
him up on his offer.

Here is the position I'm taking on copyrighted material - wherever
possible, I'm trying to contact original authors or current copyright
holders and asking for them to either release their work to the public
domain or at least approve its use for our projects. To date, I've
gotten permission from Walt Bilofsky to use any of his Heath-related
items (only those that he has developed/copyrighted personally which is
_not_ all of the Software Toolworks catalog, but does include C/80),
Kirk Thompson and Hank Lotz (Staunch89er) and Lenny Geisler (SEBHC
Journal). My understanding is that Pat Swayne turned all the HUG
resources over to Kirk, Hank and Lenny for public distribution, but I'd
certainly like to have Pat clarify that point. 

For the cases where I cannot contact the copyright holder, I have posted
a notice at the entry to the archives stating my intent to co-operate
with any copyright holder's wishes. I will remove any item that the
original owner wishes. This is also the reason that I have limited
access to SEBHC list members and why the archives are password
protected. They are not public and I am not offering the material herein
on a public basis.

Any work that SEBHC members contribute to the archives, either
individually or as a group, should be considered in the public domain,
in the spirit of the GNU General Public License.

In the specific case of Heath operating system software source and
object code, I have not obtained permission to share, modify or
redistribute it. In point of fact, nobody has been able to determine who
owns the rights to that code, in spite of good faith efforts by several
people - most notably  Dave Wallace - over the years to determine the
definitive copyright holder. I "own" portions of several versions of
that code in multiple forms. I have manuals with printed source for
system ROMs, I have the full printed O/S listings for HDOS 1.6 and 2.0
as sold by Heath, I have ROM dumps, and I have original Heath/Zenith
distribution media for the cassette "operating system", HDOS and CP/M. I
plan to post any and all of this material to the SEBHC archives for the
purpose of historical preservation, and for shared information and
further development. Any use or modification of this code is expected to
be not-for-profit. I encourage others to make the same commitment. As
noted above, I am prepared to cease and desist immediately if the
original copyright holder so requests.

Finally, remember that HDOS 3.0x, posted to the archives in source form
with documentation, was released to the public domain by the Heath
company at the time of its creation. This might make a great base for a
"new" version of HDOS with Y2K compliance, etc. I have more material to
add to these archives and I still hope to reach Bill Parrott, the
principal software architect for the project.

Jack

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