:Slashdot: MS Releases WinCE 3.0 Source (Legal issues for
Free Software developers who peek?)
Slashdot: MS Releases WinCE 3.0 Source (Legal issues for
Free Software developers who peek?) Jul 22, 2001, 20 :00 UTC (11 Talkback[s]) (8710 reads)
As a first intimation of its "Shared Source" strategy, Microsoft
has offered the source to Windows CE 3.0 -- a move embedded systems developers
have been anticipating for a few months now. The question asked
here centers around the registration requirement, which could be used to
prove a given developer saw and used Microsoft source for a project later
down the road:
"But since you may not distribute the licensed Microsoft code "in source or object form for commercial purposes under any circumstances," nor use it
to run a business, it may be unlikely that such a suit would arise. All in all, I'm not sure who besides companies selling Win CE hardware or software
will benefit from this "sharing."
However, if you ever intend to work on any Open Source programming project which might involve similar code, you might want to think twice about
downloading any code under the provisions Microsoft lists here: a simple database query can establish whether "Yourname Lastname" had access
to the Microsoft-owned code, which could result in legal problems down the road. Even if you never look at the downloaded code, the electronic trail
will look like you did -- which is perhaps the most insidious aspect of this version of sharing."
