Re: lynx-dev client impersonation? (was too long)

[Matt Ackeret]

On Wed, 30 May 2001, Philip Webb wrote:
>a related recent thought: how would anyone know,
>if closed-source companies were to use open-source material in their software?
>there could be bits of Linux in M$ Windows 2000 Professional
>or bits of Lynx in M$ Internet Explorer (probably there aren't):
>how do we enforce the GPL vs the profiteers?

You probably know this, but there are lots of people who can read the
machine language and basically de-compile it in their heads and figure out
what source code produced it.  (I know someone who basically got his job at
Apple by sending in bugs that described problems in Apple II system software,
often hypothesizing for the few bits that were written in high level languages
what exactly they did wrong at the source level..)

Especially if someone has already compiled the code for the specified platform,
I bet someone who cared enough could do some snooping and figure out if
significant portions were used.


; To UNSUBSCRIBE: Send "unsubscribe lynx-dev" to address@hidden