Microsoft pulls Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool amid GPL allegations
It was good news when Microsoft released its Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool to enable owners of netbooks without an optical drive to upgrade to Windows 7. However, it’s bad news to learn that the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool possibly contained source code from the GPLv2-licensed ImageMaster project. Oh dear.
Microsoft has long shunned the open source community. But it has kind of changed its stance of late, with the CodePlex open source group and site. The CodePlex Foundation has the simple job of bringing proprietary and open source companies together and to work on joint projects. Unfortunately, it looks as though Microsoft might have taken advantage of the ImageMaster project.
Within Windows found that the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool contained source code that is highly likely to have come from a supposedly open source project.
While poking through the UDF-related internals of the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, I had a weird feeling there was just wayyyyyyyyy too much code in there for such a simple tool. A simple search of some method names and properties, gleaned from Reflector’s output, revealed the source code was obviously lifted from the CodePlex-hosted (yikes) GPLv2-licensed ImageMaster project. (The author of the code was not contacted by Microsoft.)
The problem is that as well as not contacting the author of the code, Microsoft released the download tool under its own name, with Microsoft licenses all over it. What’s more, there was no attempt to allow users access to the source code. All of which goes against the GNU’s General Public License (GPL).
Microsoft refused to comment on the accusations at first but has now removed the download tool from its servers completely. The company then issued a statement saying:
Microsoft is looking into this issue and is taking down the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool (WUDT) from the Microsoft Store site until its investigations are complete. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience.
This is either an embarrassing mistake or a complete undermining of the GPL depending on who you believe. The fact is that the download tool has now disappeared and, I suspect, is unlikely to reappear.
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