Summary: No compliance after GPL violation from Microsoft; the exploited project is meanwhile unpublished by its author

MICROSOFT'S latest GPL violation [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] is one among several [1, 2, 3] and those who give Microsoft credit for merely complying with the law after getting caught red-handed [1, 2] ought to consider the fact that Microsoft offered promises but no compliance. There is still no GPL-licensed tool for Vista 7, but then again, this operating system is scarcely used anyway.

Microsoft fails to open source Windows 7 USB tool

A posting on Microsoft's Port 25 blog last week revealed that the company had failed to release the code of the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. Microsoft had admitted that the tool contained code from a GPL licensed application, ImageMaster, which was hosted on Microsoft's CodePlex project hosting site. Peter Galli, Microsoft's Open Source Community Manager, said "While we worked extremely hard to try and get the code ready for release by today, we still need to test and localise it". The plan is now to release the code "in the next few weeks".

Our reader Yuhong shares this new link, quoting a part which says "definitely in the sense that the culture at Microsoft still – after all these years – still emphasizes exigency over fair play," then adding that Port 25's response is here. Another reader of ours noticed that Microsoft's Sara Ford is there in the comments too, having recently appeared with Miguel de Icaza (they are both in Microsoft's CodePlex). We mentioned her before [1, 2] and now she says: "I’m the Program Manager for CodePlex. The project was unpublished at the project owner's request. The owner can republish the project at any time."

What? No code? Epic fail. ⬆