[ros-kernel] Windows source.

[Daniel Benoy]

http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/overview.html

Copyright holders have rights over reproduction, translation, broadcast, and 
public recitation/performance.  They don't have rights to prevent you from 
reading their copyrighted works. (i.e. It is legal to borrow a book from a 
friend even without a licence.)

And it makes sense, how would you be able to find out if this really is source 
code without looking at it?  Would that make Microsoft the only one allowed 
to investigate the allegations of copyright infringment without fear of 
procecution as an acomplice?

The act of actually downloading it may be considered reproduction, however 
this has not been tested in court, and most likely (given past leanings of 
the courts) the distributer would be the one infringeing, not the receiver.  
But one thing is absolutely clear and certian, to quote the old law addage 
"copyright protects expressions, not facts" you can NOT violate copyright by 
learning Windows secrets and implementing them in ReactOS.

As for trade secrets, under certian jurisdictions, like California (home of 
the infamous DeCSS lawsuits), there's laws against releasing trade secrets, 
that is to say, comitting corporate espianage.  However, these laws only 
punish the person who lets the cat out of the bag (Whoever leaked the 
source), once it's out, it's out.

As for writing to have the laws change, I don't need to.  They already protect 
anyone who would view this source, as long as they don't publically recite 
the source, broadcast it, translate it into another language, or copy it into 
ReactOS.  And it's a good thing too, because this source probably has very 
valuable secrets to expose.

Although INAL, I just happen to know a lot about copyright law.  I'm sure you 
could just go ask your attournies and they'll tell you the same thing I have.  

On a broader note, It's clear that you're all too crippled by the copyright 
culture to even function as normal decent members of society.  It's your 
civic duty to learn all of the Windows secrets and share them with your 
friends and neighbours.  That's why copyright was invented in the first 
place!  To encourage the free flow of ideas, not hamper them!  Besides, 
Microsoft WILL pull an SCO on this project eventually, wether you benifit 
from the leaked source or not.  Our one and only hope is to gain enough 
strength by then to weather the storm (Like Linux did).

On Friday, February 13, 2004 00:46, Nate DeSimone wrote:
> Microsoft's Source Code is something called a trade secret, that source
> code was not supposed to be released in the first place, it was leaked
> illegally.  Obviously you don't know a whole lot about the way the
> copyright system works, you can do 4 things with a piece of copyrighted
> material, sell it, license it, release it to the public domain, or hang
> on to it and not let anyone else have it.  Microsoft License's their IP,
> and we do not have a valid license to that source code that allows us to
> use it for derivative works (nor will Microsoft ever give us one), so
> therefore even peaking at it will make us legally liable.  If you don't
> like the way copyright works, then don't complain to us about it, all we
> do is strictly follow it to the letter.  If you would like to contest
> the current setup of the copyright system, write a letter to your
> senator or start a petition, but this mailing list is not about
> lawmaking, so therefore this discussion has ended, I will not discuss
> this issue further, and I encourage everyone else to do the same.