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Wine Now Has Big-Time Lawyers On Its Side
Roblimo writes "For years there's been fear that the Wine Project would get sued by Microsoft at some point, and this fear has kept IBM and other major free software-using companies from participating openly in it. Now the Software Freedom Law Center, headed by Columbia University law professor Eben Moglen, is offering free legal services to Wine (and other FOSS projects) to allay corporate fears and head off potential lawsuits."
My question is "what's their interest?".
I don't think this is a bad thing, just curious.
Is the free software movement gaining enough public exposure that helping it is seen as contributing to the public good?
Are we approaching a tipping point in the perception of FOSS?
here's hoping.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
Not trolling here, and neither AIAL (am I a lawyer), but can Wine be sued for reverse engineering (definition may vary) Windows APIs/functionality under the DMCA?
From what we've seen in the past, even something as simple/straightforward like pressing the shift key can be construed as "intentionally breaking copy protection mechanisms" by sue-happy companies.
Is reverse engineering document formats (OpenOffice), OS APIs (Wine), illegal under the DMCA, or can it be spun as such?
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
I wonder why Microsoft wouldn't actually PARTICIPATE in this project, or even write a low-cost version of it's own to (yes, I'm going to say it on Slashdot) sell.
Sure, it's kind of stabbing it's main flagship product in the back, but isn't that what their "Windows Lite" for the Asian markets do?
Since Indian companies are creating little cheap Linux laptops/computers, Asian companies are selling little cheap Linux computers, why would Microsoft not sell a $35 add-on for Linux, tightly registration controlled (Yes, I said that, too) that allows Microsoft-compiled applications to run on Linux.
Don't jump on me for saying Microsoft should write for Linux. Of course they should. It's unfathomable that they DONT support Linux. Heck, even monolithic old NOVELL is supporting their products on the triad of main OS'es now. Linux, MS-WIN and Mac. They're even migrating Netware to a Linux base.
= Grow a brain...
Yeah that actually makes sense.... why bother to sue when you know they're just going to lay down before it goes to court... wait till they get lawyers so a precedent can be set.
I would have thought that IBM etc. don't get involved because it's better to produce your own applications than reproduce the 'chasing a moving target' scenario which was the exact thing that killed OS/2.
maybe they will help out the people at VLC? It would be a shame to see such a great OS project die because they can not afford to have a lawyer
The legal support is free. So the fact that Wine has legal support now does not in any way mean that they suddenly also have money.
If there is a lawsuit and Wine loses Microsoft doesn't get to take the lawyers to the cleaners.
So this development does not mean there is any more money to gain from Microsoft's point of view.
Not to be a troll, but what good is WINE anyways?
Seriously though, if you're going to use WINE, most likly you are going to use it for games and for the Windows applications it can run, obviously that's what it's been created for. But with computers getting cheaper and cheaper (Dells sell for under $500 now), wouldn't it make more sense now to just go and buy a computer, get a free (as in you pay for it in the computer cost) copy of Windows and run the apps from that box?
Who in their right mind would buy the Professional version of MSOffice 2003 (which costs $500 itself) just to hope that the product works on wine?
What is the standing of their GPL compliance?
Why on Earth would their GPL compliance be an issue?
Wine used to be BSD licenced (or similar, I forget the exact details) and that is what they based their product on.
Wine later changed their licence to stop other companies using the code without contributing back.
Since licence changes are not retroactive, your question makes no sense.
How right you are.
I live about 10 miles from the biggest casino in the world (and its not in Vegas). There was a case years ago where an elderly couple here saved their entire lives to buy a plot of land right on a busy corner so they could invest in the Dunkin Donuts franchise as part of their retirement. They wanted to own the Dunkin Donuts on this corner and live off of the profits.
This plot of land was also in a key location for the nearby casino to put some advertising and an employee/patron parking lot... so they sued the elderly couple and took them to court (with absolutely no valid reason for the lawsuit).
Years later and many delays and continuances, the elderly couple's life savings was completely drained holding up their legal end of the battle. This couple already owned the land that they wanted to put this Dunkin Donuts on.
The casino gave them one final offer: Give us the deed to the land and we won't continue to sue you. Since the couple wanted some money to live off of for the rest of their golden years, they gave in and gave the casino the land.. and in exchange the casino dropped their lawsuit.
I have one word for them: FUCKERS ! (And I'm Native American too, but their abuses on this particular casino/reservation go WAY beyond tribal honor).
This stuff makes me want to vomit.
I use Wine all the time.
Kind of, anyways. I use Cedega, Transgaming's not-totally-free wine branch focused on gaming.
It means I can play many of the Windows games I want to play on Linux.
I happily live in a MS free household. I still play games on my PC, games that wouldn't be possible on a console (RTS, and MMORPG).
TransgamingWine relations are rocky sometimes, but I'm glad both communities are around. They make my life easier.
Sure, it'd be nice if all the developers built Linux versions of their games/apps. But if they find out a significant portion of the user base runs on Wine, they start trying to run their apps inside the company on Wine (some random developer almost always picks it up (Blizzard with World of Warcraft, and I know Secondlife developers have played with it).
Now there's talk of internal attempts to build native linux clients for both World of Warcraft (there was an early beta, but never a release), and Secondlife promises eventual linux support.
Using Windows games/apps on Linux, inside of Wine, demonstrates to developers that there is, indeed, a market for native versions.
Truly, its the best counter argument to "Linux is not a gaming platform, stick it Windows".
I do not believe that it makes developers lazy, and only code for Windows. They were only coding for Windows before; Linux efforts have one way to go, up.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
What did you find easy to find Linux alternatives for and what Windows apps do you need? Do you use any proprietary Linux apps?
Am I the only developer who was threatened with a lawsuit by the BSA for violating the license agreement on Office 97, which stated that you may only run Office 97 on a license Microsoft OS?
The problem, of course, was that I was playing with Wine (95) and was therefore running Office '97 on something that was NOT a licensed Microsoft OS.
I only wanted to use Power Point, which had no copmetitors that I could find in 1998. (Microsoft had a true monopoly.)
I filed a complaint under the Sherman anti-trust act for Micrsoft using one monopoly (Power-Point, which had no competitors, and did not even have a generic term like "presentation software" applied to it in 1998) to try to create another monopoly (Windows in the Operating System market.)
Maybe I'm the only one who remembers, but I'm still MILITANTLY anti-Microsoft to this day.
They comitted feolnies, and the Justice Department ignored their real wrongdoing for years. I wonder why? The DOJ seemed to do this long investigation and never found anything I thought was worth pursuing, when you only had to glance at the Office '97 license agreement to find a felony.
Andy Out!