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Microsoft Takes Responsibility For GPL Violation

Posted by Soulskill on from the owning-up dept.

An anonymous reader writes with an update to the news we discussed last weekend that a Windows 7 utility seemed to contain GPL code: "Microsoft has confirmed that the Windows 7 USB/DVD tool did, in fact, use GPL code, and they have agreed to release the tool's source code under the terms of GPLv2. In a statement, Microsoft said creation of the tool had been contracted out to a third party and apologized for not noticing the GPL code during a code review."

6 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. Microsoft acting responsibly? by cpicon92 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have to say, my opinion of MS gets better everyday...

    1. Re:Microsoft acting responsibly? by Gusfm · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nah, they are still the same.

  2. Give some credit by onyxruby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Give some credit, they did a code review, noticed the accusation was factual and did the right thing. As many times as microsoft has done the wrong thing, it's only right to credit them for doing the right thing this time.

    The interesting question now is if they will retain this tool going forward, or replace it with another that is not GPL'd. It certainly sounds like an accident, so I am curious if good production code has any chance of trumping internal politics.

  3. Re:Code Review by jim_v2000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Question: how can you tell GPL code is GPL code unless you know that it's GPL code? My point is that code reviews are cool, but they cannot catch things that the reviewers don't know to look for. And it's impossible for anyone to be familiar with every piece of GPL'd code out there, and it's impossible to build a database of such code. The best way to handle it was the way that they handled it. Someone found the error, told MS, and MS became compliant by releasing the code.

    --
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  4. Re:A setup? by tonycheese · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sorry but this is just incredibly stupid. Are you telling me they purposely put GPL code into their code with the express intent of being caught?! Or that they wasted I don't know how many billions of dollars and took bad PR on Vista so that they could wow the world with Windows 7?! Then we have the troll-moderators going down the list looking for anything anti-Microsoft in the discussion to mod up. Lovely, you guys really do a lot for Slashdot's continued reputation.

  5. What you need to know... by symbolset · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reason why I am asking is so that I can get a feel for the validity of your statement about the coding culture amongst people working for Microsoft.

    There are very few things you need to know here. Programmers for Microsoft:

    1. Wanted to work for Microsoft
    2. Convinced some people at Microsoft they would play along with their game
    3. Survived the spinup to the Microsoft programming culture
    4. Deliver the products you've come to expect

    Whether your interest is as a prospective buyer of their output of a prospective employer of a former Microsoft programmer, the choice is clear. Microsoft carefully selects their programmers from the brightest and the best because they can. They filter for the folks who can coexist with them because they must. They drive them with the processes that they have. The programmers deliver what they can in this context and accept the limitations of the context as a condition of employment. Having survived this experience a programmer must necessarily have certain properties which, depending on your point of view, mark him "desirable" or "undesirable".

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