[ros-kernel] Re: Tainted code in User32?

[Stephen Hodges]

I don't think I agree with that. Patents generally are more broad than specific, and they usually refer to a method patent holders aren't required to give the nitty gritty of the method. If google's patent was specific, I'm sure we'd have mini-googles springing up already. A patent is more so an idea than a specific implementation, that's what they are there for.. To protect someone from profiting on someone else's idea. But I wasn't suggesting that Microsoft had patented Win32/NT kernel APIs. I'm saying that the APIs themselves are copyrighted. The header files which contain the data structures, function prototypes, macros, and so on are copyrighted material. As long as ReactOS supports these identical structures, it will be basically copying the SDK or DDK headers into the ROS codebase.

Stephen Hodges
----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Richard Campbell<mailto:eek2121 at comcast.net> 
  To: ReactOS Kernel List<mailto:ros-kernel at reactos.com> 
  Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 9:56 PM
  Subject: Re: [ros-kernel] Re: Tainted code in User32?


  Just remember though,

  A patent is protection of a SPECIFIC implementation of an idea, not the actual idea itself.  Therefore, ReactOS infringes on no patents, and copyright infringement (should not be anyways) isn't an issue, because none of the code was taken from Microsoft (that i am aware of).

  As far as the realities of things, by the time Microsoft starts taking us to court, the ReactOS Foundation should be completely set up and we should have a legal team in place to deal with such threats.

  Richard

  Stephen Hodges wrote:

    The issue isn't over wether reverse engineering is legal or not and what purposes. It's about the fact that there is so much similarities and that there is so many duplicates. A reactOS DDK that is too different from Microsoft's would imply it's not compatible. If it was the same, that seems to be copyright infringement. It's the whole nature of the SCO crusade against Linux.

    If the situation were different, and say, the APIs were like electrical sockets, and instead of copyright covering that, it's a patent. APIs aren't physical per se, so it falls under intellectual property. It's a doomed goal.
      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Steven Edwards<mailto:steven_ed4153 at yahoo.com> 
      To: ReactOS Kernel List<mailto:ros-kernel at reactos.com> 
      Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 2:55 PM
      Subject: Re: [ros-kernel] Re: Tainted code in User32?


      Hi,

      --- Jason Filby <jasonfilby at yahoo.com<mailto:jasonfilby at yahoo.com>> wrote:
      > I didn't realize that the issue being debated was whether or not 
      > reverse engineering is legal for our purposes or not. Its clearly
      > best 
      > to avoid it - because even if some of us disagree on it now, it could

      This is what I proposed last week but most of our developers do not
      seem to want to adopt this stance. The 9th Circus court ruled that
      disambly of objects was legal and fell under reverse engineering but I
      dont not belive we should follow thier judgement as they are the most
      overturned court in the US and that interpretation of the law could be
      changed at any time.

      Thanks
      Steven





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