COPYRIGHT.html

<p>The copyright status of the Multics source code is somewhat
complicated.  The various source files herein contain copyright
notices by various organizations.  None include permission to
redistribute.  However, Honeywell and Bull HN distributed Multics
source code, which indicates that they believed they had sufficient
permission to do so.</p>

<p>Later Bull HN released the source code to MIT "for any purpose and
without fee", again indicating that it believed that it had sufficient
permission to do so.  See
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/multics-history/source/Multics_Internet_Server/Multics_sources.html">Multics_sources</a>,
which is also included <a href="Multics_sources.txt">here</a> both as a
convenience and as a requirement for the redistribution of the Multics
source code.  After the the Group Bull release, MIT made the source
code available on the Internet.</p>

<p>A dedicated group of Multicians then used that code base to
reconstruct a <a href="https://multics-wiki.swenson.org/">version of Multics</a>
that operates on the <a href="https://multicians.org/simulator.html">dps8m</a>
simulator platform.  Subsequently, they have made significant
enhancements to Multics (although there have been no changes in
fundamental structure).  Unfortunately, they have declined to provide
a copyright notice allowing redistribution of that code.  However,
this appears to be due to neglect rather than purposeful, and we have
chosen to treat that code as covered by the original Bull HN
copyright, mutatis mutandis.</p>

<p>(210726 - dmw)</p>