[OT] is wine completely legal (and will it stay so) ?

[Louis LeBlanc]

On 04/26/03 07:54 AM, Joris Huizer sat at the `puter and typed:
> Hello everybody,
> 
> I have the following question: as most of us know, MS
> is kind of paranoid about people copying and/or
> stealing their products (maybe because they themselves
> have done it so much ? ) 
> 
> As wine is implementing windows dlls and stuff - how
> can it stay legal (assuming MS 's using every possible
> legal method to prevent any copying) ?
> 
> Just a question which seems a bit troubling... I'm
> probably missing something obvious !

I sincerely doubt that MS could find a legal let to stand on.  First
of all, there are lots of SW vendors that could care less where you
run their stuff, so long as you pay for it and don't copy it or
install it on more systems than you have license for.

As I understand it, the dll implementations present in wine are
actually implemented based on the limited information that MS has made
available publicly anyway.  Much of it is done by trial and error to
fix the occasional misinterpretation (misinformation?) of the way the
interface should work.

They can give you a hard time about running their Apps on a
non-windoze OS, but they can't tell you where to run another vendors
apps.

So, Yeah.  I think it will always be considered legal.

Lou
-- 
Louis LeBlanc                  wine at keyslapper.org
Fully Funded Hobbyist, KeySlapper Extrordinaire :)
http://www.keyslapper.org                     Ô¿Ô¬

Epperson's law:
  When a man says it's a silly, childish game, it's probably
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