Microsoft Lifts GPL Code uses in Microsoft Store Tool
Microsoft must have been a fan of Anti-trust. In what appears to be actions stolen from Gary Winston’s playbook, MSFT Codeplex has been used to lift open source code and place it into their products. I know they don’t have cameras hidden in programmers homes, but this is more realistic and less costly (stealing code from projects you host, Gary Winston would have shit has pants on that idea.)
The tool in question is Image Master. Microsoft provides no source code for their modifications.
Here is Microsoft’s tool, Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool
Here is a source code example of the similarities between ImageMaster and the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.
Update from Original Article
Update 11/7 (3): ImageMaster UDF parsing is a valid derivative work licensed under GPL. The original parsing code is from LGPL 7zip. Here’s a comparison. And another.
Update 11/10/2009:
It looks like even pro-microsoft Neowin.net takes the story seriously.
[...] gets caught lifting GPL-licensed source code from its anti-GPL site and onto Vista 7, assuming the allegations out there are true. While poking through the UDF-related internals of the Windows 7 USB/DVD [...]
I sat here reading that and not even the smallest tremor of surprise rippled through me at all.
When there is sufficient evidence that proves otherwise i’ll post an update.
You can always, always count on Dildo Dave to support MS and any and all corporate actions against Free Software. His entire job is to market linux away from free software and back into proprietary control. this is what ACCESS pays David to do, he is attached to their Marketing dept. He is a paid corporate troll and astroturfer. This is the new face of PR and Marketing, troll down and shout out the opposition, harass them if need be. This is how they are rebranding Free Software into mere ‘open source’, which is controllable and containable. They change the definitions, just by shouting long enough. This is how American politics works. and the identical principles of Black Marketing and Karl Rove style dirty tricks are just how business is done. It is literally Orwellian marketing, contaminating and degrading the language itself if need be to get their way.
Tristan Nitot, President of Mozilla Europe, makes some interesting points in a recent story in SkyNews:
They take for granted that the freedom they enjoy is forever. I don’t think it is like that. The internet is full of promise but the future is not bright unless we make sure it is.
This rings true for me, and I think it is a point oft-missed by critics of Free Software. There seems to be some line of thinking – especially among the anti-Free Software crowd that it is “Mission Accomplished” and is now time for everyone to gather hands round the campfire and sing Kumbaya.
This is usually couched in terms of “either way is a win for the consumer” or similar nonsense – as if all ends are equally desirable.
I don’t get this thinking. FLOSS has made incredible gains thanks to core principles – gains made despite one of the world’s largest corporations best and slimiest attempts to retard progress – but somehow, now that FLOSS is enjoying real commercial and philosophical success it is time to discard those principles?
Freedom, including Software Freedom, is not forever and requires constant effort.