Re: Microsoft opening its source to selected parties

[Crispin Cowan <crispin () WIREX COM>]

Tobias Haustein wrote:

> Dan Harkless wrote:
>
> >     In a major extension of corporate policy, Microsoft has quietly started
> >     a program to provide selected large enterprise customers with copies of
> >     the source code for Windows 2000 (Professional, Server, Advanced Server
> >     and Data Center), Windows XP (released betas) and all related service
> >     packs.
>
> It is not well known, but Microsoft has given the source to universities
> and research labs for some years now. There has been a web page at
> research.microsoft.com concerning this matter and describing the
> procedure to get the code. However, I'm not aware that this has led to a
> significant increase in system security. I don't remember, whether it's
> allowed for the researchers to talk about the code or about problems
> with it.

Allegedly the university NDA said:

   * you are not allowed to disclose anything you learn from the source to
     anyone
   * there was a push to allow you to disclose what you learn to other
     universities that also had signed the NDA, but I don't whether this was
     successful
   * Microsoft owns all intellectual property resulting from your research
     involving the source

The NDA is itself under NDA, so all of the above is heresay that I picked up at
the first USENIX NT Workshop
http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/usenix-nt97/  I wouldn't
sign either one, so I've never seen the source or the source NDA.

Crispin

--
Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
Chief Research Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc. http://wirex.com
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