On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 11:47 AM, jamesmikedupont@googlemail.com jamesmikedupont@googlemail.com wrote: <snip>
Basically I am worred about these student versions of windows "infecting" open source projects with illegal contributions.
Just a crazy idea that has been following me.
Rest assured, it is simply a crazy idea. Microsoft has intellectual property right to their own software and codebase (so you can't copy parts of Windows and call it open source), but they don't have any follow-on rights to works wholly created by their users.
If I create a novel in Microsoft Word, then Microsoft has no rights that novel, even if the copy of Word I used was completely stolen. They could sue me for the cost of the lost revenue if I am not using a properly licensed copy of their software, but they would have no direct claims over the intellectual works I created using it.
-Robert Rohde