[CLUE-Talk] Legal breaking of the MS monopoly

[Grant Johnson]

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>Oh, I get it -- you mean trying to register *someone else's* unpublished
>code as if it were your own.  Yep, definitely a bad move.
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> --Matt.
>
However, if it was brought into court, it would have to be brought as 
evidence, then it could be part of the public record....  Maybe...

Really, though, if the work is unpublished, but the corporation claims 
that this is original code, what proof is there that this is indeed an 
original work, and nor plagarism, if the work remains unpublished? 
 There is a possibility that some of the code I wrote has been hijacked 
(not a good chance) and is being used against my will for the profit of 
others.  How can these controls be better enforced with an unpublished 
work?  Is there a precedent?  The Vanilla Ice scandal where he claimed 
to have written the music that was also in the song Under Pressure may 
provide some insight.  How can we be sure that no GPL code has been 
stolen for a closed source product?

I have no beef with commercial software, however, the only reason for 
closing the source is to exclude fair competition.  This is especially 
true with OS products.  The only reason to close those is to limit which 
application can run with them, and to limit where the applications 
designed for them can run.  I provides no real advantage.  Solaris comes 
with source.  MVS (OS/390) for mainframes comes with source.  ERP and 
packaged applications like PeopleSoft or GEAC Payroll come with source. 
 Why is there this one little hole called the desktop where this is not 
true?