* [ANNOUNCEMENT] Microsoft to GPL its source code
@ 2003-04-02 2:29 William Gates
2003-04-02 4:44 ` [Off Topic] " William Scott Lockwood III
0 siblings, 1 reply; 2+ messages in thread
From: William Gates @ 2003-04-02 2:29 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: linux-kernel
We have recently chosen to open up our source because it makes good business
sense for us at this time. Here are some of the reasons:
The availability of the source code and the right to modify it is very
important. It enables us to tap into the unlimited programming resources
available to tune and improve our software products.
The right to redistribute modifications and improvements to the code, and to
reuse other open source code, permits all the advantages due to the
modifiability of the software to be shared by large communities, communities
we learned that we need to embrace, under certain conditions.
The point that differentiates open source software licences from our past
licenses is modifiability. In substance, the fact that redistribution rights
cannot be revoked, and that they are universal, is what attracts a
substantial crowd of developers to work around open source software
projects, and we welcome them.
We have decided that we would like help to improve the quality of our
products, and to improve their functionality. Which, once more, will cause
more and more users give the product a try, and probably to use it
regularly.
Now this is only a temporary GPL. We have slightly modified our licenses to
open the source for a limited time period. One the time period expires, all
rights to the code, as well as deriviatives, revert back to Microsoft.
William Gates
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 2+ messages in thread
* [Off Topic] Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Microsoft to GPL its source code
2003-04-02 2:29 [ANNOUNCEMENT] Microsoft to GPL its source code William Gates
@ 2003-04-02 4:44 ` William Scott Lockwood III
0 siblings, 0 replies; 2+ messages in thread
From: William Scott Lockwood III @ 2003-04-02 4:44 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: William Gates; +Cc: linux-kernel
This would have been more entertaining had you at least hacked the headers
to make it look like it came from a @microsoft.com email address. :-)
On Wed, 2 Apr 2003, William Gates wrote:
>
>
>
>
> We have recently chosen to open up our source because it makes good business
> sense for us at this time. Here are some of the reasons:
>
> The availability of the source code and the right to modify it is very
> important. It enables us to tap into the unlimited programming resources
> available to tune and improve our software products.
>
> The right to redistribute modifications and improvements to the code, and to
> reuse other open source code, permits all the advantages due to the
> modifiability of the software to be shared by large communities, communities
> we learned that we need to embrace, under certain conditions.
>
> The point that differentiates open source software licences from our past
> licenses is modifiability. In substance, the fact that redistribution rights
> cannot be revoked, and that they are universal, is what attracts a
> substantial crowd of developers to work around open source software
> projects, and we welcome them.
>
> We have decided that we would like help to improve the quality of our
> products, and to improve their functionality. Which, once more, will cause
> more and more users give the product a try, and probably to use it
> regularly.
>
> Now this is only a temporary GPL. We have slightly modified our licenses to
> open the source for a limited time period. One the time period expires, all
> rights to the code, as well as deriviatives, revert back to Microsoft.
>
> William Gates
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8.
> http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
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>
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 2+ messages in thread
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2003-04-02 4:44 ` [Off Topic] " William Scott Lockwood III
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