Hi Anne, (01)
I was recently speaking with Michael Chernoff about a project I've been
working on, and he suggested your name as someone who might be able help. (02)
I'm currently volunteering time on a project for Silicon Valley's
Computer History Museum. A key goal of the museum is to locate,
preserve, and make available to the general public, historically
important software. The system that I am helping to try to preserve is
the NLS/Augment system, originally started in the 1960s at SRI by Doug
Engelbart (inventor of the mouse). (03)
The system was developed over about a 25 year period. The NLS system (as
it was known at SRI) was sold to Tymshare and renamed to Augment around
1977. Tymshare was later bought by McDonnell Douglas, which was itself
eventually bought by Boeing. Development on the Augment system was
stopped in the late 1980s by McDonnell Douglas and as far as I know has
not had any commercial value since then. It has been generally forgotten
since then, except as a subtext to a historically important demo
presented by Engelbart in 1968. (04)
Because of the lack of commercial value and general disuse of the
system, Augment has not appeared in any of the asset listings in the
sales and acquisitions since McDonnell Douglas, so it has been very
difficult to track down who actually owns the rights to the source code
and documentation of the Augment system. (05)
We have been working for about the last year to determine the true
owner. Our goal has been to have Boeing agree to transfer the copyright
for NLS/Augment to the Computer History Museum for purposes of long-term
preservation and availability to the general public, especially software
historians and students. (06)
We got off to a great start, because we have had the support and
interest in our project from Boeing even up to Lew Platt (the Chairman
of Boeing, who unfortunately recently passed away). However, in doing
the necessary legal work, the legal department of Boeing discovered that
it was probable that the NLS/Augment code had been transferred as an
unlisted asset in the sale and subsequent acquisition of their Tymnet
subsidiary (circa 1989). Tymnet was sold to British Telecom at that time. (07)
We have since been working with British Telecom, again with the goal of
copyright transfer for preservation purposes. British Telecom has also
been helpful in trying to help us in this quest to determine the owner.
Much to our surprise, after British Telecom did its own legal research,
it now appears that NLS/Augment was probably transferred as an unlisted
asset in the sale and subsequent acquisition of their BT Tymnet (or
BTNA?) networking division (circa 1994). I believe that BT Tymnet was
bought by MCI at that time. (08)
We now believe (and hope) that MCI will be the current owner of the
NLS/Augment code and documentation. (09)
We are interested in pursuing a quitclaim from MCI that would transfer
any rights that MCI might have specifically for NLS and/or Augment, to
the Computer History Museum, so that preservation work on this project
can proceed. Many of the people who worked on NLS or Augment over the
years are still alive, and the Computer History Museum may be able to
obtain assistance from these individuals in locating software and
documentation. But we want to be assured that we have the legal ability
to do so. We are hoping to move quickly on this project while there is
still time. (010)
A reason for renewed interest in NLS/Augment is that Doug Engelbart
recently received the Fellow Award from the Computer History Museum, and
he also turned 81 years old last month.
http://computerhistory.org/fellows2005/bios/engelbart.shtml (011)
We have also gotten in touch with Vint Cerf to help us out. Vint, of
course, worked at MCI for many years and has also received the Fellow
Award from the Computer History Museum (back in 2000).
http://computerhistory.org/events/hall_of_fellows/cerf/ (012)
I'm a software engineer and do not have the legal background myself, but
the Computer History Museum does have access to legal council for these
kinds of matters. (013)
Anne, it would be really wonderful if you could assist us in helping
this project to move forward. What steps do MCI and the Computer History
Museum need to take in order to make progress in this area? (014)
If you need any additional background information about either the
NLS/Augment software itself, or about the Computer History
Museum, I would be happy to send you more information. (015)
Thanks in advance for your help! (016)
Jonathan (017)
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://chm.cim3.net/forum/nls-legal/
Shared Files: http://chm.cim3.net/file/work/project/nls-restore/
Community Portal: http://www.computerhistory.org/
To Post: mailto:nls-legal@chm.cim3.net
Community Wiki: http://chm.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?NLS_Restoration (018)
|