[ros-dev] ReactOS Project Status

[Reuben Perelman]

Good to hear that the project will live on. And I do hope that it is 
free of all microsoft code in the end.

Would it be possible to give certain non-developers like me read-only 
access to the subversion repository?

Also, what is the point of closing the forum?

Steven Edwards wrote:

>Hello,
>Sorry for this general email. I have gotten many personal emails about
>the current situation and cannot reply to all of them. In short here
>is the deal:
>
>There have been allegations about possible copyright and trade secret
>violations in the ReactOS Project. Pending a discussion with legal
>council, those members with SVN access who were part of private
>discussion and online on IRC on Tuesday Jan 24th 2006 decided by
>majority vote to suspend operations of public SVN, forum, discussion
>and email archive. Anyone with SVN write access who might have missed
>any of the discussion is asked to try to be on IRC today at 3PM EST
>(-5GMT). We are going to discuss the matter further and decide how to
>proceed.
>
>What started out as a question about development methods mushroomed in
>to a much larger issue. The question the looms before us is a simple
>one. If one or more developers had at any leaked source code in the
>past, does it taint us and the entire project in the future? It is my
>point of view based on the AT&T Unix case that it does not however
>IANAL. It is my hope the matter can be solved via a simple set of
>changes in our IP Policy as well as sworn affidavits by major
>contributors stating they do not have access to leaked sources and if
>they ever did, no longer possess them.
>
>Rest assured that the project will live on. Every developer I have
>spoken with wants the project to survive and be a success. In the
>meantime we are filtering email discussion on this matter because we
>do not want rumor and hearsay to be spread. When the time comes and we
>have proper legal advice we will move forward. No one is trying to
>hide the truth, but law regarding Copyright, Trade Secret, Patent, etc
>differ from one country to another and we are currently exploring what
>US law says regarding the situation.
>
>One final note, no one is denying that mistakes could have been made
>and or trying to hide it forever and pretend there is nothing going
>on. We just simply do not want people to be accused of breaking the
>law if they really did not. There is clearly some violation of our
>current IP policy, however depending on what the legal council
>suggests we will see how we move forward. Many of the core developers
>at some point have either violated small sections of it by mistake or
>prior to its ratification.
>
>
>--
>Steven Edwards - ReactOS and Wine developer
>
>"There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and
>that is an idea whose time has come." - Victor Hugo
>
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>  
>