ReactOS Code Audit 217
reub2000 writes to tell us that in response to talk of "tainted" code within ReactOS Steven Edwards, ReactOS and Wine developer, has called for a complete audit of the entire source tree in addition to procedure and policy changes. From the article: "One final note, this audit of the code is going to take a long time. It could take years, but it will happen, this project will come out better than it was before. I don't believe anything anyone has done while working on this project was really wrong. Every decision has three possibilities, being moral, ethical and or legal. Sometimes the law in itself is unethical and immoral. If people made mistakes and there was a violation of the law, I question the justice of the law and or anyone that would try to prosecute any of the developers who just want the freedom to learn and create a more free system."
defensive (Score:2, Interesting)
For those of us who are unaware... (Score:4, Interesting)
ReactOS is recommended (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:defensive (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not a developer, so I'm curious...is it precedented at all for them to involve MS in this audit? Would it make sense for MS to look at the source code and advise them of any transgressions so they can fix it quickly? IIRC, ReactOS is/was open-source, so it's not like Microsoft couldn't have already downloaded the code independently to look for problems. By inviting them into the audit you at least have your ass somewhat covered, especially if they decline and then turn around and sue later.
Re:taint (Score:3, Interesting)
How do you tell the difference? (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't help but wonder... (Score:3, Interesting)
2) Since a lot of the development effort on ReactOS is shared with WINE and vice-versa, I wonder if this could affect WINE, too. MS already has acknowledged WINE's existence by checking specifically for WINE registry settings in things like their Genuine Advantage program, but they obviously haven't sued anyone over that yet, either.
Use Anti-Plagerism Software Instead of Auditing (Score:2, Interesting)
Why not have MS audit? (Score:2, Interesting)
"There is the possibility that our code in the following areas *list areas* contains fragments of MS code. We would kindly request that MS advise us as to any issues with respect to this code. If we haven't heard otherwise within 6 months, we will presume that there is no MS code that has been used."
IANAL, but perhaps the law of estoppel would then apply?
A plant (Score:2, Interesting)
If it was getting too close for comfort, i dont doubt for a second that a company like Microsoft would do something like this. ( and then set things up for one hell of a lawsuit.. )
Makes you wonder if the 'leaked code' was infact a stunt to facilitate things like this for the forseeable future.. "everyone is tainted, the sky is falling, give us more money'
Re:taint (Score:3, Interesting)
Uh, you do realize that Linux is just a clone of Unix, right? The ReactOS guys are trying to do the exact same thing with Windows, the situation is entirely analogous.
Re:Ethical vs. Moral? (Score:1, Interesting)
They're complicating it (Score:2, Interesting)
Who's auditing closed source? (Score:3, Interesting)
All I see is giant megaprofit closed source corporations get to run on the "wesayso" law, "we say we only have pure code of our own writing", but everyone else in the other camp has to be scared of lawsuits because they glanced at some closed source someplace and are under draconian NDAs or whatnot.
Kinda like diebold and vote counts. The vote is what we say it is, if you don't believe it, tough noogies.
Re:Ethical vs. Moral? (Score:3, Interesting)
What do morals have to do with this?
Move out of USA or fork without USA developers (Score:3, Interesting)
The way it looks this project will stagnate into oblivion, unless something like a coup of foreign developers (a fork) occurs.
Too bad this happened just before v3.
Nah... it's called "da markett" (Score:3, Interesting)
When I worked with sales software (inventory, etc), we would occasionally decompile someone else's program to see if we could find grounds to sue, especially if the interface was very similar to our program. We catched one guy with a plagiarized copy of our program (down to programming errors) and we nailed him, driving him out of business. Actually, we didn't have to sue... we just threatened to press criminal charges and he yielded. He paid some $$$ to our firm, gave us his clients database (which we used to offer our support contract, at a discount) -- I think he lived on our backs for an year so IMHO he got off easily.