Windows 2000 source code has been leaked

[Robert Shearman]

Robert Lunnon wrote:
>
> The mere "claim" of an infringement by Microsoft's army of
> lawyers can make
> major corporations quiver in their boots.

That's true. Although, the fact that we have a source control system that
allows us to account for where every piece of code comes from should allow
us to identify an unscrupulous individual submitting copyrighted code, which
is more than a lot of corporations have.

> I feel it's quite
> possible that the
> leak is a deliberate ploy by Microsoft to be able to "claim" that
> projects
> like wine are tainted, infringe Microsoft copyright and should be
> shutdown/
> made illegal. This tactic would at least slow down competitive
> development in
> the marketplace.... Hmm

Oh, come on! There is no good reason why Microsoft would release the code
and plenty of bad reasons. The only open-source projects that could possibly
be compatible with Windows source code are Wine, WineX and ReactOS. Since a
lot functions have already been implemented to some extent it would probably
be easier to work from Wine code than to adapt Windows code. Not to mention
technical issues like half of Windows being C++ and code being dumped in
using unimplemented functions. And even if it were found out that someone
had been looking at the Windows code whilst at the same time submitting
patches for Wine it would be very likely that their code would be removed
within hours of it being discovered.

> Mind you if the leak can be proved deliberate, then a deliberate
> release of
> such code might render the copyrights ineffective, since Microsoft was
> knowingly giving the code out for distribution....

Hell freezing over seems more likely.

> Still, Watch This Space !
>
> Bob
>

Rob