[ros-kernel] RE: [ros-cvs] CVS Update: reactos

[Vizzini]

On Fri, 2004-06-25 at 17:15, Hartmut Birr wrote:
> the first paragraph of each M$ EULA says what you can do with the software. 
> ...
> 1. GRANT OF LICENSE.  This EULA grants you the following rights:
. a. SOFTWARE PRODUCT. You may install and use an unlimited number of
copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT on computers, including workstations,
terminals or other digital electronic devices ("COMPUTERS") to design,
develop and test drivers for use with Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows
98, Windows 98, Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition operating
systems ("Drivers").
-----------

This is a grey area, at best.  For example, you're certainly allowed to
*read* the documentation, even if you never write a driver.  This is
really a question of fair use, which, God help me, is *not* dead.  

I read the EULA to mean that you cannot link MS object code (libs) or
directly use (i.e. #include in a source file) MS headers in the kits for
drivers/etc for non-MS products.  The *documentation* (and header files
can indeed be read as documentation!) cannot be restricted in this way. 
It doesn't make sense, legally, to say "You cannot use this information
to develop drivers for a particular operating system", perhaps outside
the scope of an NDA.  IANAL, so I'll see if I can get this validated.

 -Vizzini