Re: [OT] Did you try ReactOS?

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Thanks for at least one sane and real reply. In ReactOS we are trying our
best to prevent patches going in which look suspicious, or from people whose
knowledge we are not sure about (who could just have downloaded illegal
sources and copypasted the code). However I can not be absolutely sure this
didn't happen, because obviously I have no legal right to look into that
source code to compare with ours.

And in case with Wine (and in future Samba) we have to trust their own
method of ensuring code legality.


With the best regards,
Aleksey Bragin
ReactOS Project Lead
http://www.reactos.org
Email: aleksey at reactos dot org


"Maxim S. Shatskih" wrote:

"Implementing a compatible system" _while using the information leaks from the
original vendor_ is a law violation, and probably even a crime (depends on
country).

So, if there will be evidence that Samba and/or Wine developers used the leaked
MS's source to write their code - then Samba and/or Wine will have legal
issues.

Making a clone based on direct confidential information leaks from the original
vendor is surely punisheable.

"Implementing a compatible system" _based on reverse-engineering_ is a milder
thing, and probably not a law violation at all - any pharmaceutical company
from the country other then world's Top 10 do this to create "generic" drugs,
and I never heard it is illegal (unless the company also "borrow" the original
product name, which is a crime).

At least the Russian company of "Ferein" - well-known clonemaker of medicines
for ~13 years - was operating OK, and now is prosecuted due to tax dodging and
not due to IP violations.

--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation
maxim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.storagecraft.com
.

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