On Thu, Feb 03, 2000 at 01:03:35PM +0100, Marc van Leeuwen wrote: > Thanks for the information (though I haven't any development kits to look at). > Unfortunately it doesn't answer my question, or more exactly, shows that my > question wasn't the one I was really after. If MS really is able (or think > they are able) to bind people to a contract before they can even begin to make > a Windows application, then they don't need to invoke copyright law, and so > their position does not illuminate the possiblities of that law.
Well, this is not what I was saying, but read on. > I was > thinking of a program that was freely developed and compiled to run under > Windows (i.e., with the Windows API), How can you use the Windows API without including for example Window header files? You can't if you don't have a fully compatible replacement library, which is not only API compatible, but also ABI compatible, so you don't need to recompile (eg a program which can be linked to Windows DLLs at runtime without using any MS licensed source code). As Ideas can't be copyrighted, only patented, under such circumstances MS would have no way to forbid redistributing such a hypothetical binary. It is really the same discussion as with a non-GPLed readline replacement. > but which does not require any other MS > product (like the VB runtime library) to accompany it. There is no legal difference between VB runtime libraries, header files and DLLs. It does matter how you produced your binary. If you can write a binary that can make use of the VB runtime lib without being compiled with Visual Basic, the situation is the same as above. > Maybe such programs > cannot legally exist, and the question becomes meaningless. Unless there is > maybe some other proprietary platform, where users can actually get to own > their copy of the software... Those programs can exist, but are difficult to produce. You would have to avoid carefully any reference to other peoples copyrighted material as header files etc. However, I can't see how this point is of interest in this discussion. Thanks, Marcus
