[Mono-list] Shared Source License from MSFT to ECMA for CLI

[Guy Murphy]

The shared source deal has been known about for quite some time. MS made it quite clear what it was, and what you could do with it.

If... and it's only an if, any offending code snuck it's way into Mono, is would most likely be discrete and isolated... the offended party would request it's removal... if they were clearly in the right, Mono would I expect have this piece of code removed, and a replacement would be produced double-quick.

Is there any reasons for my assuming the above to be in error?

There seems to be a lot of continuing angst and anxiety in this ballpark... Mono is simply implementing a publically published interface.

There are obvious safety precautions that need to be considered.... but they are being considered.

Lastly, while it's quite obvious why a Mono contributor shouldn't even dream of looking at MS Shared source code... equally looking at such code does not leave a smoulering brand on ones forehead, nor does it leave greasy smudges on ones code for life. In fact one could go as far as to argue, that unless you're from the muppet school of development, there's more chance of you accidently producing a similar implementation to shared source if you haven't seen the shared source code than if you have.

No, none of this is an incitement to run out and burn your retinas with shared source code, merely making the point, that the angst is pretty much for entertaintment value only. It's just I always get this movie like image of professionaly crippling a developer by strapping them into a chair and flashing closed source code infront of their face so they can never safely code again.

 - Guy

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Baulig [mailto:martin@gnome.org]
Sent: 21 March 2002 10:20
To: A Rafael D Teixeira
Cc: Dan.Mezick@newtechusa.com; mono-list@ximian.com
Subject: Re: [Mono-list] Shared Source License from MSFT to ECMA for CLI


"A Rafael D Teixeira" <rafaelteixeirabr@hotmail.com> writes:

> >If so, do you require your Mono developers to sign a document stating that
> >they have NEVER SEEN any CLI code under the MSFT shared source license?

Well, I'm not a lawer, but as far as I understand the German law, it'd
be a legal offense in my country to contribute any code to the Mono
project (since that'd be seen as an act of "publishing" this code)
which violates anyone's copyright.

So even if there's no protected from the projects point of view, IMO
there's still the little "protection" that anyone who does this would
most likely commit a legal offense in his country and can be held
liable for this.

I don't know what happens if any copyrighted code ever ends up in Mono
and Microsoft or anyone else sues us, but IMO the project could then
sue the person who committed this code and ask him for a compensation
for his damage.

However, I'm not a lawer, this is just my understanding of the law ...

-- 
Martin Baulig
martin@gnome.org

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