MS Pulls Windows 7 Tool After GPL Violation Claim

Sam notes an Ars story on Microsoft pulling the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool from the Microsoft Store website after a report indicating that the tool incorporated open source code in a way that violated the GNU's General Public License. Whether the software giant is actually violating the GPL, a widely used (including by the Linux kernel) free software license, is not confirmed. "We are currently taking down the Windows USB/DVD Tool from the Microsoft Store site until our review of the tool is complete," a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. The fact the company pulled the tool doesn't bode well, so we'll have to watch closely to see what the company puts back on its servers.

Comments

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[Anonymous Coward]

A friend of mine works at the borg. He's a penguin at heart and generally a good guy. This is what he told me. I believe him, but you can make up your own mind. There is/was a GPL violation, but MS didn't do it directly. They licensed some code from a third party. The third party was responsible for the GPL violation (they licensed the GPL code under a non-GPL license).

Re:What if it IS a violation?

[msimm]

If it is a violate they'll remove the code and put the application back up. The same thing that usually happens in a GPL violation, I don't see any reason to treat Microsoft differently.

Re:What if it IS a GPL violation part II?

[lordandmaker]

Who, exactly, sues them in this case?

In theory, the author(s) of the code. In practice, they'd likely hand it over to the FSF who exist partly for the protection of GPL'd code.

If anybody wants it before it is gone

[hairyfeet]

It is currently on Major Geeks, but who knows for how long. From the sound of it all it does is make a USB drive bootable like the HP format tool and then copy the ISO files to the drive.

Hell something that simple...why would they need to steal GPL code,unless they got themselves a seriously lazy programmer/contractor?