Hi,
Based on your scenario, I think who ever the M$ big mouth is, he/she is
missing a very important factor....... Did you know that it is legal to
reverse engineer software, even proprietary ones like those of M$, in the
United Kingdom.....? So since FS & OSI is an international thing perhaps
some of these foreseen violations may still be detected....
Besides the patent office does have a copy of the source code right? and
it's a government office, thus making it a public document, thus accessible
to the public... M$'s source code is not a matter of national security you
know.... I guess GNU, OSI, FSF, etc. can check there.....
If all else fails remember the phrase, "hackers of the world unite...."
? hehehehe Just remembered the movie..... (hackers not crackers okay)
Nothing serious intended. :-)
-----------
Have fun!
"If only Linux can operate faster, boot faster, run applications faster,
....."
=====================Original Message====================
From: Michael Peligro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: Abbey Road Recording Studios
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [plug] Apparently hate GPL code then rip it behind our backs
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 23:25:15 +0800
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Saturday 07 September 2002 8:20 pm, Paolo Falcone wrote:
> MS is allowed to study the code (there's nothing wrong with
> studying...). What is forbidden for them would be to rip the code, add
> proprietary extensions and close the derivative product under a non-GPL
> compliant license.
>
> Afaik, the GPL doesn't involve copyrighting the algorithms... so unless
> one would use GPL'd code in a project, the derivative need not be GPL'd=
=2E
> But it doesn't mean that one ain't allowed to study the algorithms
> behind the code.
It's actually worrisome when you don't have the source code for Windows t=
o=20
verify if indeed there is no "ripped code" in there. Microsoft will alway=
s=20
laugh at us and say:
=09"Hahahaha! Did we or did we not rip your GPL code? We won't let you se=
e the
=09code, so use your ESP and make your best guess! Without proof or evid=
ence
=09(lack of source code) that we ripped your code, no one can take us to =
court!
=09And we have a billion dollars in cash reserves to take advantage of al=
l open
=09source' hard-earned coding work for free! Use your stable branches the=
n stamp
=09our brand Microsoft in it! No sweat Research & Development, easy money=
! All
=09we have to do is integrate it with our mature GUI technology and make =
it
=09really usable. We have well-funded usability labs, you know. And all y=
ou
=09Linux vendors/distributors who are either broke, or lack the financial
=09stability to compete with us can only envy our marketing machine!=20
=09And all you pathetic Linux distros who compete with one another have
=09to endure the l-o-o-n-g wait to ratify the Linux Standards Base. We ca=
n
=09standardize our systems faster than you, because we're a much integrat=
ed
=09company. And you can always delay your individual progress by pitting=20
=09your technologies against one another, urpmi vs. apt-get, KDE vs. Gnom=
e, Qt=20
=09vs GTK, ext3 vs reiserfs. Go ahead Linux people, divide your developer=
s mind
=09share!
=09So sweat it out all you open source hackers! We might use your code so=
meday,
=09but that's for you to guess if it's in Windows! Until then, happy hack=
ing!
=09Nice free work on Samba, hackers! We also rejoice you've made it faste=
r=20
=09than our very own SMB. We can inspect your sources and might integrate=
your
=09code in our revisions of SMB someday! Thanks for the free work!
=09We'll=09just use any of your work, all your kernel hacks probably soon=
, but
=09you'll never know...We'll not release the source code of Windows, you =
know.
=09Someday, we'll have our revenge and run the Linux OS as an application=
in
=09Windows, like what you do with Windows in that Win4Lin and WINE sh*t. =
And it
=09will run stable too, because there's a Linux-like kernel in Windows th=
at does
=09it. Of course, you'll never know if it's really there...=20
=09Hahahaha! Now we know how to leverage open source and make it work for=
us."
=09Microserfs! Go forward and conquer! We're the Napoleons of computing!
=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09 Sincerely,
=09=09=09=09 Ballmer=
and B*tthead
I wonder how FSF, Open source, and all freedom-loving computing citizens =
of=20
the world can do about this. Isn't it scary?
mikol
--=20
Making files is easy under the UNIX operating system. Therefore, users
tend to create numerous files using large amounts of file space. It has
been said that the only standard thing about all UNIX systems is the
message-of-the-day telling users to clean up their files.
=09=09-- System V.2 administrator's guide
--__--__--
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