• Microsoft fesses up to stealing code

    Posted on November 16, 2009 at 05:51 CST by • Comment in the Forums

    Remember the incident I told you about last week, where Microsoft got caught stealing open source code, and using it in one of their own products? The company has finally fessed up.

    ‘Softie Peter Galli writes:

    After looking at the code in question, we are now able to confirm this was indeed the case, although it was not intentional on our part. While we had contracted with a third party to create the tool, we share responsibility as we did not catch it as part of our code review process.

    I’m not sure what Peter means when he says “although it was not intentional on our part.” Of course it was intentional. Not in the sense that some high level Microsoft committee made a deliberate decision to steal source code. But definitely in the sense that the culture at Microsoft still – after all these years – still emphasizes exigency over fair play.

    As compensation, MS has agreed to release the program as an open source program. Well, OK, but then what?

    Look at it this way. If, oh, Apple had stolen Microsoft source code – lifted it, copied it wholesale – and stuck it in an Apple product, what do you think would happen?

    The fact that Microsoft stole from some poor programmer (or small group of programmers) who can’t afford an army of lawyers makes all the difference, eh?

    Other ,
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