🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <104@urban.UUCP>, jlr@urban.UUCP (John Lynn Roseman) writes...

>Setting up a company to distribute UNIX would give 
>people and organizations outside of the government access to 
>software that the bureaucracy already has, as well as
>increasing availability to the bureaucracy itself.

Such a company would be redundant.  The Soviet State Fund of
Algorithms, Tsentrprogrammisistem (excuse my incorrect transliteration)
distributes BSD derived Unix already.  The key to the Soviet
marketplace is not in changing their copyright laws to respect
the intellectual property of software authors (although there
have been some moves, including the Pereslavyl Zalyevsky conference
of a few months ago), but in changing their monetary system so
that they can afford to purchase software.  

Rubles are worthless, and no software company can take rubles
and stay in business, unless they have very, very deep pockets. 
Companies like JV Dialogue are making inroads into the market,
but until the economy allows free commerce between East/West,
the copying of software which is protected under Western law
will continue.  

This is not to say that making the Ruble convertible will instantly
change the ingrained habits of Soviet software users, but it *will*
provide an opportunity for companies that wish to be legal to
say legal---without breaking their precious hard-currency bankrolls.

jms