Microsoft source code releases - a danger to Wine?

[Bernhard Rosenkraenzer]

On Sat, 21 Jul 2001, Ian Pilcher wrote:

> This leads me to wonder if anyone's ever thought of taking steps to
> protect Wine from "contamination" by Microsoft IP (legally, not tech-
> nically :-).

What can we do about that? Since none of the people involved is going to
have a look at the actual M$ source, how are we supposed to know if a
patch posted on the list is taken from them?

Worse yet: If we coincidentally use similar code to theirs, how can we
prove we haven't looked at their code? If I were paranoid, I'd say the
single purpose of releasing the source was to get wine in trouble.

> I believe that the FSF uses some type of form/statement before they will
> accept code, and it seems like the nature of this project would make it
> particularly beneficial.

That won't do much good, because e-mailed statements/forms aren't legally
binding. #include <fix-the-law.h>

LLAP
bero