copyright?

[Scott D. Allen]

Is it legal to remove the cat /etc/copyright from the /etc/profile file and just make it cat /etc/motd or /etc/issue? I want to use a regular motd for the login message, but don't want to infringe on copyright laws etc. Suggestions? Any (ugh) lawyers out there?

--Scott

[Scott D. Allen]

Forget it. Just figured it out myself. /etc/profile looks for a readable /etc/motd file and then cats it out. I can just keep the /etc/copyright stuff in front of that and no problem.

Sorry.

--Scott

[Shannon Petry]

Dont know if it helps, but I just run clear after copyright. Then my motd and issue are displayed, depending on how one gets to the system. issue is only shown on telnet, not rlogin or login. Motd is the one i toy with the most. This way, you bypass the problem of removing copyright. :)

[Victor BERRIDGE]

I think you will have to leave the cat /etc/copyright
But the is nothing stopping you modifying /etc/motd is a way you will not have time to see the previous (make it the size of your screen...)

Regards
Victor

[Antoanetta Naghiu]

I don't know if it is legal or not, I guess it is not legal to remove it. As a suggestion, you can leave it there and edit your /etc/motd.
The copyright info will fly away on the screen you'll have your message from /etc/motd. (A have that in a secured box, for the warning regarding the authorrized use of the system. Copyright info is there but do not bother.

[Jeremiah Campbell]

Generally copyrights must be left alone in the instance of re-distribution of open-source code with modification. You can't take someone elses work, change something and redistribute it with your name as the author.

Two things suggest to me that there is no reason why you can't remove it.

1) It isn't source code and your problably not re-distributing it.

2) You paid for it, it's yours now.

One of the top reasons I would recommend removing the "cat" line is for security. The less information you dump on someones screen when they telnet in, the less they have to work with in hacking into your system. One security practice we use to use was to change the /etc/issue file so that the server O/S and version was never displayed.

[Fred Martin_1]

I also commented-out the 'cat' line for the same reasons - it's too long, and for security reasons. I also removed the OS/version portion of /etc/issue.

Off topic but since it was mentioned, the legal department at one company I worked for told us to remove the "Welcome to Our Company..." message in our /etc/issue. It was changed to "Our Company Authorized Login..."

Reason: "Welcome" could be construed as an invitation to hackers :)