Wine legalities

Scott Ritchie scott at open-vote.org
Tue Feb 1 21:46:30 CST 2005


Also on this topic came the subject of diff files.  IIRC someone wanted
to include them to help users make use of Microsoft headers that needed
a bit of tweaking.

Are diff files that are patches to Microsoft code legal to be
distributed?  They have bits of Microsoft code in them, but are they a
derivative work?

Thanks,
Scott Ritchie

On Tue, 2005-02-01 at 19:16 -0800, Ira Krakow wrote:
> Jeremy,
>  
> I agree - this is an exciting development. Microsoft's
> ability to spread FUD and their legal budget are
> enormous.  We need this kind of expert help.
>  
> Here's an area where I'd like an expert opinion.  In
> the Winelib part of the Wine book, I'd like to include
> an example of converting a Microsoft VC++ 6.0 MFC
> application.  This is Winelib's primary target, in my
> opinion.  My question is:  how far can I go?  There
> are proprietary Microsoft header files that need to be
> included - does the Microsoft EULA allow disclosure of
> what these header files are?  Or is it only legally
> safe to say something generic like "....figure out for
> yourself which header files you need to #include..."?
>  
> In general, I think Microsoft has to tread lightly on
> the issue of running Microsoft apps in Linux. 
> Certainly, they're within their rights to hang up if a
> Linux/Winword user calls the help desk.  But going
> after a company who legally pays for Winword licenses
> and runs Winword in Linux/Wine is another matter,
> bringing up the antitrust bogeyman again.  Getting an
> expert legal opinion on this would be very useful. 
> IMHO, even if Microsoft was legally on solid footing,
> it would be a huge PR disaster for them.  Eventually,
> these issues will come to a head.
>  
> Ira
> 
> 
> 




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