Microsoft faces off with Linux fans

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Comment at odds w/ MS lawyer

/* Signing up for the shared source program doesn't pose problems for open-source programmers, according to Taylor. Participating in a shared source project "in no way contaminates yourself or any programs you're working on," he said.

*/

I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers O'Reilly's Open Source Convention (http://technetcast.ddj.com/tnc_catalog.html?item_id=267 first two links), which had Tiemann (from Red Hat) and Ballmer (Microsoft) head-to-head on stage.

What I remember most was the Ballmer brought David Stutz with him. Stutz identified himself as a Microsoft lawyer. Near the end of the debate, during the question phase, Tiemann rejected Shared Source licensing because, as he put it, "if I look at the code I'm infected."

If there was ever a time for Ballmer or Stutz to dispel this belief, especially since it had been popular in Linux programmers for months, it was then. Instead both looked like they'd been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Stutz, who had been talking about "derivative works" and how he'd "tried cases that were based on abstractions on top of abstractions" in particular shrugged, as if to say "yup."

It's pretty clear that if you read MS code, you will be tainted in any related programming work.

For further clarification, look at SCO's Memorandum in Support of its Motion to Compel (sco.tuxrocks.com/Docs/IBM/Doc-67.pdf), interrogatory 4, pg. 11: Identify all persons who had *access* to UNIX source code, AIX source code and Dynix source code.... For each such person, set forth precisely the materials to which he or she had access.

UNIX, in this case is SCO, AIX is IBM, and Dynix is Sequent, now owned by IBM. Note that the question regards simple access, such as the ability to read. Depending on the details, SCO's legal team seems to think that such access infects programmers.

Posted by: mlybbert   Posted on: 01/23/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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