I sent an email to Bell Labs a couple of weeks ago suggesting that Plan 9 be released as "public domain" code. I even suggested that this could be a great way to honour the late Dennis Ritchie (who worked there, of course), getting the code "out there" for all and sundry to use, no strings attached. Unfortunately, I didn't get a reply, so I guess the email was deleted without being read. ( Probably thought "Arrrrgh! Another one of those P.D. zealots!" ) ( And they'd be right.... ;) )
I just think it is TRAGIC and a HUGE waste that such an elegant and beautifully-designed OS as Plan 9 continues to basically sit in a backwater, ignored and unused by almost everyone. And it is sitting there when I am convinced that a P.D. release would see its use rocket into the stratosphere.
What would be the harm in releasing it to the public domain? It is already open-source so it's not as if any revenue would be lost. It would be a good P.R. opportunity for Bell Labs too (and as I say, a nice way of honouring D.R.
Let's face it - if Unix itself had been released as P.D. in the first place, then there would have been no need to reinvent it (as with the BSDs and Linux). It could simply have been continually improved upon. That's where I'm "coming from", as it were.
SQLite shows what is possible with P.D. code. It is apparently used in darned-near every smartphone out there, so it's not as if companies won't use P.D. code if it is good enough. If it meets their needs, they will go for it.