Code in Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool Violates Open Source License
Microsoft released a quite useful tool called Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool shortly after Windows 7 was released. The tool is quite neat and does ease a lot of work involved to install Windows 7 on a netbook or any computer that doesn’t have DVD-Rom.
However, as Pull Thurrott pointed out, in which Rafael discovered the issue while he and Pull both tried to solve one program in the tool.
While poking through the UDF-related internals of the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, I had a weird feeling there was just wayyyyyyyyy too much code in there for such a simple tool. A simple search of some method names and properties, gleaned from Reflector’s output, revealed the source code was obviously lifted from the CodePlex-hosted (yikes) GPLv2-licensed ImageMaster project. (The author of the code was not contacted by Microsoft.)
I see two problems here. (I’m not a FSF professional, so there may be more.)
First, Microsoft did not offer or provide source code for their modifications to ImageMaster nor their tool. According to GPLv2.
Second, Microsoft glued in some of their own licensing terms, further restricting your rights to the software (TermsOfUse.rtf). According to their terms …. "You may not … publish the software for others to copy."
I understand Microsoft is a big company and that this could have been externally contracted work, but someone dropped the ball during code review/licensing.
That’s not cool. Pretty serious actually. Microsoft hasn’t responded to this yet but they do instantly pull the tool off their website. Yes, the download link is no longer available.
If you still need the tool and are not too concern about the code violation itself, you can still find other places to download. If you can’t, leave a comment with your email address, we will shot you the download link.
[Update on Nov 16, 2009]
Microsoft has confirmed that it did use the code in question.
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. We have furthermore conducted a review of other code provided through the Microsoft Store and this was the only incident of this sort we could find.
Kudos to Microsoft. Admitting the mistakes made by yourself sometimes could earn you respective from others.
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Comments (5)
- Creating Bootable Windows 7 Install USB Flash Drive or DVD Using Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool | Windows 7 hacker
[...] has pull the tool off their website due to the violation of the code. Check this post for more details. AKPC_IDS += "1516,"; Disclaimer Before you act upon this post, please [...]
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Can't find a copy of the Microsoft USB/DVD Download Tool still around. Can you help me?
that's because they have violates the open source license http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php/2009/11...
but anyways here is the link you can download http://majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=6265&f...
cheers
Can't find a copy of the Microsoft USB/DVD Download Tool still around. Can you help me?
that's because they have violates the open source license http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php/2009/11...
but anyways here is the link you can download http://majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=6265&f...
cheers
M$ also gave a part of its hyper-v source for better integration with xen and other virtualization products the lines of codes were only 2000, but its been kept in the staging drivers of linux kernel 2.6.31 and it still continues to be in the staging driver in 2.6.32 and 2.6.32.2. the thing is greg kroah did put them in staging because those might not get supported for long by the respective developer. and the reason opted by M$ is they want to play fair with opensource. windows playing fair? uh uh! well, let us be fair then and see if they are really playing fair, else we can knock them off the block isnt it? so we have allowed them to play and hopefully they will play fair till they want to continue to play fair, we are fair to their fair game policies. lets see what time has got stored for us.
and then again greg even reported that M$ is using a part of its opensource GPL drivers given w/o proper source code access to its customers for hyper-v, and when it was pointed, then they again pulled it off and rolled it back. mmmmmm, interesting. now this is real fun. i mean those chaps where the chairman hates opensource and there is a team in the opensource ideology arena and there is also a sphere dedicated to open source. aargh my eyes hurt to see my type so much garbage. this is a windows7hack, why am i blabbering. but still the fact, be truth or falsehood needs to be told. we are there to include them, since they also did include SUA (system-v unix applications) and also supporting sco and trying to take away our coding away from us.
how ironical, only time will say when the nightingle starts to sing in crows nest and fly away. so they are fed separate meat. hope i dont annoy the fans of windows.
well i am a linux/unix/bsd guy no doubt, but it doesnt say anywhere that i cant use windows from M$. does it.