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Re: Netatalk and OpenSSL licencing



On Thu, 12 Aug 2004, Josh Triplett wrote:
> > Then any Windows program which uses undocumented Windows system calls (of
> > which there are plenty) is a derivative work of Windows and can't be
> > distributed without Microsoft's permission, at least until someone discovers
> > the system calls and implements them in Wine?
> Quite arguably yes.  However, Microsoft is intelligent enough to know
> that going after people who develop applications for your platform is a
> bad idea.  I suspect they would have grounds to do so if they wanted to.

The FSF said basically the same thing when I asked them, and it doesn't
seem right.  While it's not in Microsoft's interest to go after application
developers in general, it *is* in Microsoft's interest to go after it when
the application is Word Perfect, Netscape, or another competitor.  It's
telling that Microsoft hasn't tried such a thing.



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