Inaccuracies in the Statement within the NOTICE File of the Repository

[orthur2]

Issue:Inaccuracies in the Statement within the NOTICE File of the Repository

Description:

The current NOTICE file in the repository contains inaccuracies regarding the historical attribution of Plan 9's development and Bell Labs' ownership history. The file erroneously associates the development of Plan 9 with Nokia Corporation, which is misleading and historically incorrect.

Why?

The current repository description states: 'This software was originally authored by employees of Bell Laboratories, a unit of Nokia Corporation.' This statement is historically inaccurate. Plan 9 was developed by employees of Bell Laboratories when it was a part of AT&T , not Nokia. Nokia only acquired Bell Labs in 2016, long after the development of Plan 9.While Bell Labs is now known as Nokia Bell Labs, such a statement could mislead people into thinking that Plan 9 was developed by Nokia. Plan 9 has always belonged to Bell Labs, but the affiliation of Bell Labs has undergone significant changes since the inception of Plan 9.

First and foremost,look at the history of the development and evoluntion of Plan 9.Plan 9 was developed by AT&T's Bell Labs starting in 1985. Bell Labs released the first version of Plan 9 to universities in 1992, followed by a commercial release of the second version in 1995. However, by 1996, AT&T shifted its focus to the Inferno project, and Plan 9 was shelved. After Bell Labs became part of Lucent Technologies in the late 1990s, commercial support was discontinued, and the third version of Plan 9 was released under an open-source license in 2000, followed by a fourth version in 2002 under a free software license. Subsequently, as Bell Labs shifted its focus to other projects, official development of the Plan 9 system ceased. In 2021, after a copyright transfer, the Plan 9 Foundation resumed development, with the community continuing unofficial development through the 9front fork.

Following that, let's use a timeline to trace the affiliation of Plan 9 and Bell Labs. Plan 9 was developed at Bell Labs starting in the late 1980s. We all know that Bell Labs belonged to AT&T at that time. In 1996, AT&T spun off Bell Laboratories, along with most of its equipment manufacturing business, into a new company named Lucent Technologies. In April 2006, Bell Laboratories' parent company, Lucent Technologies, signed a merger agreement with Alcatel, after which Bell Labs belonged to Alcatel-Lucent. It was not until April 15,2015 ,that Nokia announced the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent,by which time plan 9 was largely out of maintenance.

In conclusion, from a personal perspective, such a statement is inappropriate and that it is important to avoid confusion or incorrect attribution. It is essential to accurately preserve the legacy of Plan 9 and Bell Labs.

[rminnich]

When Nokia assigned the software to the Plan 9 Foundation, they included this text in the legal agreement (I just looked it up): "Assignee will include the following attribution below Assignee’s copyright notice, as follows: This software was originally authored by employees of Bell Laboratories, a unit of Nokia Corporation. Assignee agrees to include on its webpage(s), a statement crediting Bell Laboratories with the creation of the Software, the contents of said statement being mutually agreed by the parties hereto."

Given that this text was part of our legal agreement with Nokia, we are not changing it.

Thanks for your historical note, but, be aware, many of the members of the Foundation are well aware of this history, having been there at the time. We are not ignorant of this history. But the agreement constrains us.

If you want to write up a history, we can see about including it somewhere else on the site.

[orthur2]

Thank you for your response and clarification. I understand and respect the legal constraints you mentioned, as well as the terms agreed upon with Nokia.

At the same time, I feel that historical accuracy is crucial for preserving the legacy of Plan 9 and its developers. As you mentioned, many participants are well aware of Plan 9’s history, but for those unfamiliar with the background, the current statement might cause some confusion.

In my personal opinion, you might consider adding a brief historical background section (such as HISTORY.md) somewhere on the website, detailing the evolution of Bell Labs, the development of Plan 9, and its transitions between different companies. This would not only preserve the current legal statement but also provide more context for users interested in the history of Plan 9.

If you think this is a good idea, I would be happy to help draft a brief historical overview for reference. However, I'm a bit anxious because I wasn’t even born when the fourth edition of Plan 9 was released. I can only verify these facts through official documents and Wikipedia, and I’m concerned that it might be challenging to produce an accurate historical account based solely on these sources.

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused. I only learned about Plan 9, this elegant operating system, earlier this month, and tried to further understand the project through GitHub. During this process, I found that statement confusing, which led me to research the matter and raise this issue, though I wasn’t aware of the underlying reasons.

Thank you again for addressing this issue and for your work in maintaining the Plan 9 project.