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Re: [ossig] Microsoft going round promoting .net

Hi Harish,

I didn't get a copy of the CD myself - don't want to prejudice
any further work *I* may do, even if I cannot (yet?) persuade
others in our organisation or elsewhere to be so careful.  I
am guessing from the links on Dr. Wong Chek Yoon's personal
web page (http://www.jati.net.my/cywong/) that the CD is
the '.NET Framework Academic Resource Kit' -
http://docs.msdnaa.net/ark_new/npage.htm

I expect and hope most people on this list are well aware of
the difference between GPL and shared source license :)

The full shared source license is attached, this is only
for the '.NET framework', there may be other shared source
licenses for other packages.


Imran




Harish Pillay wrote:
Imran -

What are the contents in the .NET CD? Could those be sample code on how to use the .NET API? Back when I was in MS (13 years ago), we used to give source code away that was basically code to show how to build a Windows and OS/2 app - clock, notepad etc. A lot
of it were either verbatim or extensions from Petzold's book on Windows programming.

I am not sure if people on this list are aware of the subtle but
important difference between GPLed and Shared Source code. One
can read, study, understand, adopt and even implement independently ideas that one gets from GPLed code and without fear of prosecution
etc. Whereas, Shared Source can contaminate one's future work because the virality of Shared Source scheme. IMHO, shared source
is more damaging than GPL is.

BTW, could you email the full shared source license to this list?

Harish

On Thu, Mar 20, 2003 at 06:04:46PM +0800, Imran William Smith wrote:

MS did a presentation here (Mimos) today on .NET, hoping
to target the technology research people within Mimos.


They are keen to give out CD's with .NET shared source
on them, inviting us to duplicate them, give them out,
have a good browse through the information and code. Only
when I quizzed them about the licensing agreement did they
admit that there was a license agreement, but glossed
over it somewhat with 'it's a few pages of legal
stuff, actually I didn't read it fully myself'. The guy
presenting (Dr. Wong Chek Yoon, MicroSoft Visiting Fellow,
Multimedia University) was kind enough to email me
the full license agreement afterwards.

The key phrase is probably:

"You may use any information in intangible form that you remember after
accessing the Software. However, this right does not grant you a
license to any of Microsoft's copyrights or patents for anything you
might create using such information."


The license is somewhat GPL-like - you can modify and
redistribute but only under the terms of the original license,
and if you try to sue anyone for patent infringement, the license automatically ends.



It looks to me like
MS is actively pushing sharedsource code at developers.
They're trying to get mindset in academic world, saying
'this source code will help you do technology research'.
They spin it as 'help the world of technology move forward',
rather than 'help the world of *Microsoft* technology
move forward'.


How best to counter? Just keep the open source PR
machine rolling?


Imran



--
Imran William Smith
Project Manager, Open Source Development,
Mimos Berhad, Malaysia

Asian Open Source Centre : http://www.asiaosc.org
Mimos open source : http://opensource.mimos.my



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--
Imran William Smith
Project Manager, Open Source Development,
Mimos Berhad, Malaysia

Asian Open Source Centre : http://www.asiaosc.org
Mimos open source        : http://opensource.mimos.my


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