[Mono-list] AppServer code is posted

[Pokey the Penguin]

On Sun, 2003-01-12 at 03:40, Brian Ritchie wrote:
> Sorry about the long wait.  I've finally posted the source to the 
> application server I've been working on.
> 
> You can get the code here:
> http://brianritchie.webhop.net/ideas/appserver.aspx
> 
> I'm hoping that one day this can be part of the Mono platform...but right 
> now it only works on MS .NET.  Hopefully with a few patches it can run on 
> Mono too.

Forgive me for playing devil's advocate, but how can this ever become
part of Mono when its components are clearly taken verbatim from
Microsoft software?

Mono is an Open Source/Free Software project, which is different to
being just "freely available". Although definitions vary, one of the
fundamental groundings of open source is that it should be both freely
redistributable and freely modifiable. Your application server can meet
either of these requirements.

I see many files with the header

        Copyright (c) 2000-2002 Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved.
        Version 1.0.2.226

You can't just decide on a whim that you want to relicense these files
under the X11/MIT license without the permission of Microsoft Corp. Even
if you were to rewrite all this Microsoft code in your AppServer, there
would still be issues with derivative work licensing as your application
is based so closely on Microsoft's original work.

The same applies to the Microsoft artwork that you've "borrowed" from
Microsoft products for use in the Web front-end. Just like programmers
developed the source code that you've taken, graphics artists at
Microsoft designed the artwork that you've appropriated. They are simply
not something you have produced.

You also mention that some of the code is based on Microsoft's "Cassini"
web-server. If this is just a conceptual basing, that's fine. However,
if it's a derivative work based on the sources of Cassini, this would be
yet another cause for concern.

You should seriously consider renaming your application server as soon
as possible. Taking chunks of Microsoft code and re-branding them is not
what Mono is about, and it is most certainly not legal.