Friday, November 13, 2009

Win 7 USB/DVD utility to be re-released next week, this time under GPLv2 (yes, that means source too)

Port 25 - Update on the Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool

“As you've likely read, we've been investigating a report that the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, might contain GPLv2 code.  The WUDT is a free tool which was offered by the Microsoft Store that enabled customers to create bootable USB drives or DVD backup media from the electronic software (ESD) edition of Windows 7 that comes in an ISO format.

When it comes to our attention that a Microsoft component contains third party code, our aim is to be respectful of the terms under which that code is being shared. 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 [GD:Emphasis added] …

…”

Nice. I’m glad they are not fighting, hemming and hawing over this and instead are making the right call. Sure they might not have much choice, but still, they could have fought harder, meaner, lamer, etc. Hard right over the easy wrong. Hard right, own up, re-release it honoring the license they found themselves stuck with, move on and learn from it.

(via @giovannitweet)

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