[ale] Take a look at a new M$ EULA - WJS on M$ Open Source Hypocricy

[aaron]

> On Thursday 21 June 2001 12:45 pm, Chris Woodruff wrote:
> > Take a look --
> > http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdn-files/027/001/516/eula_mit.htm

Previously, Benjamin Scherrey typed into the ether:
> Doesn't this violate MS' agreement with the Justice Department? It basically 
> excludes the ability for any non-closed-source, non-for-fee, software from 
> being distributed or used with their product (as I read it). MS' stepping on 
> a land mine here if they don't watch out.
> 	Ben Scherrey

I agree. MicroShaft's legs are going to get blown out from under them if
they persist in such an obviously unenforcable and monopolistic tactic.
This EULA will be challenged and discarded in short order. You can't
sell someone a wine glass and then try to dictate what liquids they
drink from it or what shelf they store it on.

Then there are the issues of Fraud, Hypocricy and Defamation in the
"viral" wording. Even the Wall Street is arleady calling that bluff:
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An Ultimate in Hypocrisy:
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Microsoft Uses Open-Source Code
Despite Denying Use of Such Software

By LEE GOMES
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Microsoft Corp., even while mounting a new campaign against open-source
software, has quietly been using such free computer code in several
major products, as well as on key portions of a popular Web site --
despite denying last week that it did so.

Software connected with the FreeBSD open-source operating system is used
in several places deep inside several versions of Microsoft's Windows
software, such as in the "TCP/IP" section that arranges all connections
to the Internet. The company also uses FreeBSD on numerous "server"
computers that manage major functions at its Hotmail free e-mail
service, whose registered users exceed 100 million and make it one of
the Web's busiest sites.

Microsoft acknowledged its repeated use of open-source code
Friday, in response to questions about the matter. Just two days
earlier, it had specifically denied the existence of any such software
at Hotmail.

"Open-source" programs, such as the popular Linux operating
system, are typically free and allow users to view and modify
blueprint-like instructions known as source code. The growing
popularity of such software is among the most potent competition for
some of Microsoft's products, and for a new technology it has
proposed called Microsoft.NET.

In recent statements, Microsoft executives have argued that open-source
software is dangerous to companies using it, in large part because of
the licensing provisions that accompany the software. Microsoft Vice
President Craig Mundie, for example, said in a recent speech that all
open-source software "has inherent security risks and can force
intellectual property into the public domain."

But Microsoft's statements Friday suggest the company has itself been
taking advantage of the very technology it has insisted would bring dire
consequences to others. "I am appalled at the way Microsoft bashes open
source on the one hand, while depending on it for its business on the
other," said Marshall Kirk McKusick, a leader of the FreeBSD development
team.

While not as well-known as Linux, FreeBSD has a strong following in the
technical community. Much of Microsoft's use of the software at Hotmail
was uncovered Thursday evening by Trevor Johnson, a FreeBSD developer in
Los Angeles who used standard Internet monitoring tools to check on the
computers at Hotmail. Mr. Johnson said he acted because he was skeptical
of Microsoft's claim, in a Wall Street Journal article Thursday, that
there was no FreeBSD left at the service.

When Microsoft moved to buy Hotmail in 1997, it was already running on
FreeBSD, and continued to do so for several years, a source of some
embarrassment to Microsoft. The company had earlier said, though, that
it removed all FreeBSD from Hotmail last summer, and even has a lengthy
technical paper on its Web site describing the transition.

But Friday, Microsoft conceded FreeBSD was still being used at Hotmail
on machines that track advertising and that run a crucial Internet
function known as "DNS hosting." A Microsoft spokesman said he couldn't
explain why Microsoft had given out incorrect information on the topic.

The spokesman said FreeBSD was still in use simply because the company
had yet to switch the machines over to Windows.

But one employee of the Redmond, Wash., company said Microsoft has
deliberately kept FreeBSD in parts of Hotmail because of its technical
superiority over Windows in important functions and furthermore had
decided to actually increase its reliance on FreeBSD. Many of the
company's Web sites went down much of a day in January, and this person
said FreeBSD was judged to be better than Windows at helping to prevent
a recurrence of the problem.

On Friday, several FreeBSD volunteers combing through Microsoft
products, including the new Windows 2000 operating system, found
numerous instances where Microsoft had made use of their software --
something perfectly legal for it to do. The Microsoft spokesman, in
acknowledging that fact, said it didn't contradict the company's many
recent anti-open-source statements. He said that's because Microsoft's
main objection has been to Linux, which has a more restrictive licensing
arrangement than FreeBSD.

Microsoft, though, hasn't previously suggested that there were benign
forms of open-source software, and while singling out Linux for special
criticism, has tended to criticize all open-source with the same broad
brush.

In its campaign against open-source, Microsoft has been unable to come
up with examples of companies being harmed by it. One reason, said Eric
von Hippel, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who heads
up a research effort in the field, is that virtually all the available
evidence suggests that open source is "a huge advantage" to companies.
"They are able to build on a common standard that is not owned by
anyone," he said. "With Windows, Microsoft owns them."

Write to Lee Gomes at lee.gomes at wsj.com
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