[ros-dev] CRT source code issue

[Aleksey Bragin]

	Hi,
Recently Betov made some accusations regarding possible usage of MS's  
copyrighted code in ReactOS's CRT library (example lib/sdk/libcntpr/ 
math/i386/sqrt_asm.s, alldiv_asm.s, and other files).

Here is my official statement in regarding to this false accusation:
This source code originally was imported into ReactOS from SanOS  
project, where it was said as having GPL license (all original  
copyrights are kept). After a lot of complains from Betov (aimed at  
getting attention to his own project, not at improving ReactOS),  
developers thought it worths looking into the issue deeper.

I performed some investigation, and found that SDL project  
(www.libsdl.org) has the same code in trunk and in v1.2 branch  
(http://www.libsdl.org/cgi/viewvc.cgi/trunk/SDL/src/stdlib/ 
SDL_stdlib.c?view=markup).
Everyone can compare asm source code with respective functions found  
in MSVC's CRT source code. It matches up to label names, however  
numbers have been converted from dec to hex representation. The code  
in SDL project is marked as "GPL" and author is stated as "Sam  
Lantinga".

It may look like a serious problem, but in reality, the source code  
of these functions is released by Microsoft in SSCLI 2.0, with a  
license which allows GPLing of the source code, with one restriction:  
"You may not use or distribute this Software and any derivative works  
in any form for commercial purposes.".
SSCLI 2.0 can be freely downloaded by everyone, license is also  
certainly available to read.

I'm going to communicate with SDL about this issue, but since ReactOS  
is not used commercially, it's not a problem for ReactOS now. We are  
ready to collaborate with SDL on removing this issue, if it's  
considered a real problem.


With the best regards,
Aleksey Bragin.