🚀 go-pugleaf

The following quote is from an official with the Soviet 
patent agency:

   There is no copyright protection for computer software 
   in the USSR.  Now the rules of protecting software in our
   country are under discussion and preparation.  The protection 
   is available now by confidentiality of the contract.
        I. Zhuravljova, v/o Sojuspatent  6/15/90

This seems to imply that all packaged software is in the public 
domain in the USSR.  So a company could theoretically be set up 
there with a disk duplicator and shrink wrapped copy of UNIX sVr4, 
and sell unlicensed copies at a very low price.

One issue is whether this would violate any American laws.
For a company with no ties to AT&T, it seems not to.

Another issue is whether it's a good idea.  The Soviets
currently have a small installed computer base, which
is a big reason that their system is inefficient.  But 
with the 386SX now becoming a commodity item, they have the 
opportunity to avoid investing in obsolete and dead-end
technology that is already entrenched in the West. 

The simplest way to assure the rapid deployment of UNIX/386
is to distribute it freely, an approach which is in accord 
with the Soviet legal system and mainstream communism.
This would put UNIX on a level playing field with DOS
(which is already copied freely).  Besides making the
bureaucracy more efficient, enough UNIX systems would
also promote the use of wide area networks like this one.