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So What If Linux Infringes On Microsoft IP?
Mr Men writes to mention a ZDNet blog entry by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes wondering aloud if maybe, just maybe, Microsoft isn't lying about having patents that are part of Linux. "Come on, no matter how much of a Linux fan you are, you have to admit that there's at least a chance that Linux does indeed infringe on Microsoft's patents. After all, Microsoft does hold a lot of patents and while Linux is open source and we can all take a look at the source code, only Microsoft has access to most of its source code so it isn't all that difficult for it to prove — to itself at any rate — that there are IP infringements contained in Linux. After all, before IBM handed over some 500 patents to the open source community, it's pretty clear that Linux was infringing some of them. Given that, why is it so hard to believe that the same isn't going on with Microsoft?" Even then, he goes on to say, so what if they do? It's not like they're going to go after us with a 'Linux tax.' Kingsley-Hughes imagines that, for the most part, Microsoft is just going to sit on this info and use it to form more and more profitable deals. Better than the alternative, I guess.
From GPL v2:
All direct or derived GPL source is subject to the GPL.
If there are licensing problems with the software, you do not have permission to use or distribute it.
If there are problems with IP conflicts, the GPL explicitly does not apply to the source code in question. That means NO ONE has the right to distribute that software except the AUTHOR/OWNER, and they must use a license other than the GPL to do so.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Umm, yes. Please remind me the place and time when Linus started developing the kernel...?
As long as Microsoft puts something like "Some portions © Regents of the University of California" on a splash page somewhere, they've done everything they need to "rip off" BSD code. Winsock was just the Windows implementation of Berkeley sockets, and is the prime example of their use of BSD licensed code.
BSD license means they can do whatever the hell they want with it as long as they keep the copyright attached to the code or binary, this is why Apple can build on top of BSD and link into it without releasing their UI code. The benefit of BSD is that different private companies can build on top of the same software infrastructure without giving up their improvements, while the reference implementation remains in public and still owned by the writer, who may elect to change the license in the future (BSD is not public domain). BSD is not for me, except for example programs in articles, maybe, but if you're one of those permissive types that wants developer to be "free" to use your code, then it's there for you.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
I can't tell if you're agreeing with me or not, but just in case you're not. Here's why:
Top 5 Online Populations by Country, Among Visitors Age 15+
March 2006
Total Worldwide - All Locations
Source: comScore World Metrix
Worldwide Total 694,260
United States 152,046
China 74,727
Japan 52,100
Germany 31,813
United Kingdom 30,190
When 4% of the world's population represents over 20% of the world's online presence, it's safe to assume they are an extremely important market for software.
I heard a lot of Windows code was ripped off from BSD.
I heard that monkeys fly on fairy wings.
Here's what happened (I know a guy who was on the NT/2000 development team, and worked on the TCP/IP stack). Early on in the life of the NT project, Microsoft's networking software ran over a system called Netbeui (Netbios is the API for Netbeui). Microsoft realized that TCP/IP was kicking the holy hell out of other networking solutions (Blue Glue...ew...). So they resolved to put a TCP/IP stack into NT.
Problem was, they didn't have a lot of time. So they licensed a TCP/IP stack (that used BSD code) from a company that, if my memory serves me right, was called Spider Systems. Their TCP/IP stack was decent, but ran in an environment called STREAMS. Microsoft licensed the stack and STREAMS and ported them to Windows.
The Spider stack wasn't very good. It relied upon STREAMS, which was kludgey and ugly and a heavyweight. The only version of NT to use it was NT 3. By NT 3.5 (the second version of NT, as it happened), it had been replaced by a Microsoft-written one. I'm not saying that the TCP/IP stack in modern Windows OSes, such as XP, is completely, 100% free of all BSD code. I mean, hell, some things are just stupid to do twice (the checksum calculation, for example), and if you did rewrite it it'd look almost exactly the same. Identical.
Now, some of the utilities--ftp, rcp, rsh--remained BSD-derived for quite a long time. But here's the thing--and if you had any clue as to what you were talking about, you'd have known this--it was entirely legal. As long as attribution is given, BSD code can be used for any purpose--and I remember that, in 3.51 at least, those utilities had the requisite "regents of University of California" text in it.
Yes, Microsoft has used BSD-derived code in the past. That doesn't make it "ripped off." That's the entire point of BSD.
Mod parent -1 Clueless.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."