Netlib is a repository of software for scientific computing maintained by AT&T, Bell Laboratories, the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The project began with email distribution on UUCP, ARPANET and CSNET in the 1980s.
[2] The code base of Netlib was written at a time when computer software was not yet considered merchandise.
Before the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 (and the earlier Copyright Act of 1976) works without an explicit copyright notice were public-domain software.
Also, most of the Netlib code is work of US government employees and therefore in the public domain.