reverse engineering an entire operating system isn’t easy
Have you noticed the the NT / Windows XP source code was leaked years ago. There’s isn’t much of a need to “reverse engineering”, it’s just about reading their implementation and providing an alternative implementation that doesn’t copy code…
Guess that rule was in place because some people would look at it and proceed to copy it. The rule should be “if you copy code from Microsoft you’ll be kicked from the project and the code removed”. While I see why this is place and what it protect the project from this is also a very big roadblock to the project’s evolution and a clear example of what’s wrong with it and why we still have compatibility issues.
Nope, because if you write code and they can prove you were influenced by leaked proprietary code in any way then they will sue the shit out of you and shut you down.
Also see Halt and Catch Fire for a show with this as a plot point. It’s very real though.
Didn’t companies have to set up ethics walls to protect against lawsuits for things like that?
What are you talking about? There’s copyright infringement that when you copy the leaked Windows source code into something like Wine or ReactOS and then there’s reading it to understand what Microsoft did and coming up with an alternative implementation that will provide a compatible API for programs to use. There’s no “gray zone” or ethical BS - it’s either copied or not.
See the bit about examples and IBM. While you could probably look, the easiest way to defend against a giant tech company’s legal team is to do the clean room setup
You can. Who can prove you read it? There’s copyright infringement that happens when you copy the leaked Windows source code into something like Wine or ReactOS and then there’s reading it to understand what Microsoft did and coming up with an alternative implementation that will provide a compatible API for programs to use. There’s no “gray zone” or ethical BS - it’s either copied or not.
I am not a lawyer but I’m pretty sure your wrong entirely. The court will take one look at the code and then at the MS code and they will see the similarities.
Under no circumstances can a developer of wine, proton or React os look at leaked code. That would be a major liability.
Under no circumstances can a developer of wine, proton or React os look at leaked code. That would be a major liability.
Why? As long as there’s no copied code there’s no copyright infringement. Nobody can ever prove you had a look at some leaked source code.
What you’re saying is mostly the reason why we still have compatibility issues in Wine.
Anyways, do you really think that Microsoft is so worried about ethics and hypothetical copyright infringements as you seem to be? if they were they wouldn’t be what they are today… maybe that’s Linux desktop isn’t still a viable option? :)
Have you noticed the the NT / Windows XP source code was leaked years ago. There’s isn’t much of a need to “reverse engineering”, it’s just about reading their implementation and providing an alternative implementation that doesn’t copy code…
Paragraph «Don’t», bullet point number 3: Don’t look at any Microsoft source code. https://wiki.winehq.org/Clean_Room_Guidelines
Lol.
Imagine shooting yourselves in the foot like this.
Guess that rule was in place because some people would look at it and proceed to copy it. The rule should be “if you copy code from Microsoft you’ll be kicked from the project and the code removed”. While I see why this is place and what it protect the project from this is also a very big roadblock to the project’s evolution and a clear example of what’s wrong with it and why we still have compatibility issues.
That’s a lot of words to emphasize you don’t understand copyright law
Succinctly.
If only there were ways to subvert copyright law…
Nope, because if you write code and they can prove you were influenced by leaked proprietary code in any way then they will sue the shit out of you and shut you down.
Also see Halt and Catch Fire for a show with this as a plot point. It’s very real though.
Well, since it’s so easy, go do it.
That sounds difficult though. Didn’t companies have to set up ethics walls to protect against lawsuits for things like that?
What are you talking about? There’s copyright infringement that when you copy the leaked Windows source code into something like Wine or ReactOS and then there’s reading it to understand what Microsoft did and coming up with an alternative implementation that will provide a compatible API for programs to use. There’s no “gray zone” or ethical BS - it’s either copied or not.
Ah the term I was looking for was “clean room”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design
See the bit about examples and IBM. While you could probably look, the easiest way to defend against a giant tech company’s legal team is to do the clean room setup
You can’t do that as its a copyrighted work.
You can. Who can prove you read it? There’s copyright infringement that happens when you copy the leaked Windows source code into something like Wine or ReactOS and then there’s reading it to understand what Microsoft did and coming up with an alternative implementation that will provide a compatible API for programs to use. There’s no “gray zone” or ethical BS - it’s either copied or not.
I am not a lawyer but I’m pretty sure your wrong entirely. The court will take one look at the code and then at the MS code and they will see the similarities.
Under no circumstances can a developer of wine, proton or React os look at leaked code. That would be a major liability.
Why? As long as there’s no copied code there’s no copyright infringement. Nobody can ever prove you had a look at some leaked source code.
What you’re saying is mostly the reason why we still have compatibility issues in Wine.
Anyways, do you really think that Microsoft is so worried about ethics and hypothetical copyright infringements as you seem to be? if they were they wouldn’t be what they are today… maybe that’s Linux desktop isn’t still a viable option? :)
Can I get a source?
Source of?