Microsoft's Linux Kernel Code Drop Result of GPL Violation
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 23rd Jul 2009 09:43 UTC
Microsoft Sometimes, some things are just too good to be true. Earlier this week, Microsoft made a relatively stunning announcement that it would contribute some 20000 lines of code to the Linux kernel, licensed under the GPL. Microsoft isn't particularly fond of either Linux or the GPL, so this was pretty big news. As it turns out, the code drop was brought on by... A GPL violation.
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RE[2]: Didn't require release
by Karitku on Thu 23rd Jul 2009 12:40 UTC in reply to "RE: Didn't require release"
Karitku
Member since:
2006-01-12

That is not correct. What Microsoft did was a copyright violation and it doesn't get away by just stopping further violations. Typically, the copyright holders of GPL code settle with the condition that the source code is released, a "late fix" of the violation. If MS would not follow that path, the copyright holders would probably sue MS (with a lot of media coverage) and eventually get damages paid.

I think you get it wrong. Firstly whole code part is done by Microsoft so they can just change license. Secondly code was disqualified as being GPL licensed because it breaks it own rules, so it must be removed. Thirdly the closed source is most likely protected by some other license agreement.

What you think is that this is standard GPL violation where some GPL code is taken and then turned to something other without permission from authors, which this isn't. Like I said Microsoft is author of code, code itself can't be GPL because it links to closed source, so only reasonable solution is to remove that piece from kernel.

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