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Microsoft Apologizes for Improperly Using Code
by Mark Hachman
Microsoft has acknowledged that it incorporated open-source code into a Windows 7 download tool. As a result, it will make the download tool's source code available to the community.
The code in question concerned the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool, a utility for loading Windows 7 onto either a USB key or a DVD. The tool was pulled after a blogger discovered that Microsoft had incorporated code using the GPLv2 license, which requires Microsoft to provide its own source code documentation, or at least offer to.
On Friday, Microsoft acknowledged that it the code in question was licensed under GPLv2, but said it was a mistake.
"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," Peter Galli, a former eWEEK reporter and now a community manager for Microsoft, said via a blog post. "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."
Microsoft's goal is to be "respectful" of the licensing terms under which code is shared, Galli added. "As a result, we will be making the source code as well as binaries for this tool available next week under the terms of the General Public License v2 as described here, and are also taking measures to apply what we have learned from this experience for future code reviews we perform," he wrote.
"We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this has caused Galli added.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355892,00.asp
by Mark Hachman
Microsoft has acknowledged that it incorporated open-source code into a Windows 7 download tool. As a result, it will make the download tool's source code available to the community.
The code in question concerned the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool, a utility for loading Windows 7 onto either a USB key or a DVD. The tool was pulled after a blogger discovered that Microsoft had incorporated code using the GPLv2 license, which requires Microsoft to provide its own source code documentation, or at least offer to.
On Friday, Microsoft acknowledged that it the code in question was licensed under GPLv2, but said it was a mistake.
"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," Peter Galli, a former eWEEK reporter and now a community manager for Microsoft, said via a blog post. "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."
Microsoft's goal is to be "respectful" of the licensing terms under which code is shared, Galli added. "As a result, we will be making the source code as well as binaries for this tool available next week under the terms of the General Public License v2 as described here, and are also taking measures to apply what we have learned from this experience for future code reviews we perform," he wrote.
"We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this has caused Galli added.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355892,00.asp