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Microsoft's Overlooked Code Theft

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the respect-for-intellectual-property dept.

Like2Byte was one of many readers to point out that "Newsforge is reporting that Microsoft was fined by a French court for three million francs "because it illegally included another company's proprietary source code in SoftImage 3D," something which (as the story points out) went mostly unremarked at the time. This is one of the points mentioned by Peruvian Senator David Villanueva Nuñez in his response to Microsoft FUD.

8 of 422 comments (clear)

  1. Um... by Imperial+Tacohead · · Score: 0, Troll

    That's only like $500,000. Given that Microsoft has $40B on hand, were I a French court, I would have fined them a lot more, just for the hell of it.

  2. Re:A couple points. by Royster · · Score: 1, Troll

    Yeah, they just put in the Univ of Ca copyright notice for the fun of it.

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  3. Microsoft's Overlooked Code Theft? by nochops · · Score: 0, Troll

    Microsoft's Overlooked Code Theft? No, SoftImage's overlooked code-theft, and timothy's lame (but effective) attempt to drum up today's anti MS babble.

    --
    "A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
  4. what goes around comes around by tps12 · · Score: 1, Troll
    Coming from the culture (shared by my fellow slashdotter, I think) of "information freedom," I can't say I'm surprised. Think about it: Microsoft is one of the biggest recruiters of CS grads in the U.S. A full 92% of their employees are under the age of 25. Which means they have all grown up in the geek culture where television, radio, and Internet are all free or subsidized.

    The Free Source community is an offshoot of the same ideals, where cooperation is encouraged and revelation celebrated. What Microsoft has done here is not so different from what Linux Torvalds did to Minux. Just as his actions drove Minux out of business, so too will Microsoft proceed to drive Linux into the ground.

    In the end, the winners are the users. For us, things just get more free and easier to use, which is what technology is all about. Empowerment to be our best.

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  5. Re:HAHAHAHA by HiThere · · Score: 1, Troll

    Besides, this isn't the first time they've done this, so it isn't really news anyway. (e.g., Stacker)

    Do you really believe that all those newspapers were only carrying one story? I saw several business items, even several computer business items. So they must have decided it wasn't "newsworthy", whatever that means.

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    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  6. Possible hint at fear of Linux... by esteban666 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Perhaps this is one of the reasons Microsoft is so afraid of Linux... they won't be able to steal new and innovative code because of the GPL. Microsoft won't be able to embrace, extend and destroy anything as they've done with everything else. As new systems and tools are designed and first released thru Linux, Microsoft won't be able to steal it. If they do (did?), they'll have to release their precious proprietary code. Hmmm... I wonder what's already under the hood.

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  7. Re:I wonder... by cscx · · Score: 0, Troll

    All the legal and moral righteousness in the world isn't gonna stand up to $40 billion in cash reserves...

    Just think how many jars of Crisco RMS can buy with $40 billion...

  8. What is a franc? by eean · · Score: 0, Troll

    What this "franc" stuff all about? They still have those around?