File:TJ-2 memo from p2.jpg

Type Justifying Program (TJ-2) by Peter Samson, published in a PDP-1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Memo PDP-9-1 dated 9 May 1963

Image is copyright the authors of TJ-2 and courtesy of Daniel P. B. Smith

Text transcription by Smith is available at: http://www.dpbsmith.com/tj2.html

Rationale for fair use: This image is a copy of a JPEG of a small section of page 2 of 4 of a copy of a TJ-2 memo.

These notes are by Daniel P. B. Smith. I scanned the document and provided images to Susan Lesch. They are a faithful copy of a memo published in 1963 that contains no copyright notice. While I believe that in any case the image is fair use, here are my reasons for thinking it is in fact in the public domain.

In 1963 I don't think the law provided for automatic copyright "at birth" but required registration. It would have been very unusual for a copyright item not to contain a notice. Because of the nuisance and cost of registration, it would have been unusual for a university to routinely copyright memos like these.

I also believe that if it had been copyrighted in 1963, the copyright would have had to be renewed in order to continue in force.

An online search of the U. S. Copyright office records does not show any copyright under the title TJ-2 and in fact a search and inspection of all items beginning in TJ (a few hundred items) turns up nothing relevant. Searches under author "Samson, Peter" and "Samson, Pete" turn up a total of ten items, none relevant; one, "TX-1-774-957: Digital audio engineering : an anthology / John Strawn, editor ; with contributions by James F. McGill, Robert Talambiras, Peter R. Samson ... et al.. [Claimant:] William Kaufmann , Inc." is probably by the same Peter Samson who wrote TJ-2. Searches for author beginning in PDP (since the title page of the memo credits it to "PDP-1 Computer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 39, Massachusetts) turns up three authors: "PDP GROUP, INC (35 items), PDP INTERCINE, SA (1 item), and PDP, INC (9 items)." These in turn lead to a total of about forty-five items, none relevant. The computer may or may not have been connected with the Research Laboratory of Electronics; searches for author beginning RLE and author beginning Research Laboratory of Electronics turn up nothing relevant.

To the best of my recollection, the source code for TJ-2 and other PDP-1 software written at MIT did not contain copyright notices, either. I'm relying on memory, of course, but I do remember some details, namely that the source code for TJ-2 did contain quotations introducing major sections, one being a line from Milton that "The ways of God are just and can be justified to man," and one being some quip to the effect that girls who wear pants should be sure that the end justifies the jeans.

I am very sure that TJ-2 and other software of the time did not print out or display copyright notices on execution.

So, I think myself that both the memo and the software are in the public domain. Dpbsmith (talk) 02:26, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

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