ref: 5dc4afccc896cc41f1a5850f0ec520d76881e9a7
parent: 0e8f525451ba3e22447c1f1e4700d63c9848534f
author: glenda <[email protected]>
date: Wed Jun 29 21:56:58 EDT 2022
fqa.ms, fqa0.ms: add 0.2.3.3 - Why did Rob give up on releasing tracks by The Residents, Wire, Lou Reed, and Debby Harry on the Plan 9 CD-ROM?
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0.2.3.2 - Why did CIA give up on Plan 9?
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+0.2.3.3 - Why did Rob give up on releasing tracks by The Residents, Wire, Lou Reed, and Debby Harry on the Plan 9 CD-ROM?
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0.2.4 - What is the deal with Plan 9's weird license?
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https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/foia-cia-plan-9-from-bell-labs-82547/
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+.html - <a name="0.2.3.3" />
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+0.2.3.3 - Why did Rob give up on releasing tracks by The Residents, Wire, Lou Reed, and Debby Harry on the Plan 9 CD-ROM?
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+.DS
+From: Rob Pike <[email protected]>
+Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2022 12:58:15 +1000
+Subject: [TUHS] Re: forgotten versions
+
+The Plan 9 CD-ROM needed about 100MB for the full distribution, if that. We
+hatched a plan to fill up the rest with encoded music and include the
+software to decode it. (We wanted to get the encoder out too, but lawyers
+stood in the way. Keep reading.) Using connections I had with folks in the
+area, and some very helpful friends in the music business, I got permission
+to distribute several hours of existing recorded stuff from groups like the
+Residents and Wire. Lou Reed gave a couple of pieces too - he was very
+interested in Ken and Sean's work (which, it should be noted, was built on
+groundbreaking work done in the acoustics center at Bell Labs) and visited
+us to check it out. Debby Harry even recorded an original song for us in
+the studio.
+
+We had permission for all this of course, and releases from everyone
+involved. It was very exciting.
+
+So naturally, just before release, an asshole (I am being kind) lawyer at
+AT&T headquarters in Manhattan stopped the project cold. In a phone call
+that treated me as shabbily as I have ever been, he said he didn't know who
+these "assholes" (again, but this time his term) were and therefore the
+releases were meaningless because anyone could have written them.
+
+And that, my friends, is why MP-3 took off instead of the far better
+follow-on system we were on the cusp of getting out the door.
+
+-rob
+
+P.S. No, I don't have the music any more. Too sad to keep.
+.DE
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0.2.4 - What is the deal with Plan 9's weird license?