On Fri, May 01, 1998 at 11:32:59AM +1000, Hamish Moffatt wrote: > On Thu, Apr 30, 1998 at 06:50:14PM -0400, Thomas Lakofski wrote: > > If you suspected this, there are ways in which it can be shown that your > > code has been stolen, as was done when Microsoft stole Stacker technology > > and called it Doublespace in DOS 6.2. The risk of being caught is usually > > enough deterrent, as if you were caught, the license terms of GPL'd > > software would require the release of sources for all derivative works. > > But weren't Microsoft found to have breached Stac's patent, rather than > stolen actual code? I think actual code would be harder to prove > than infringement of a patent.
There was an article in _EE Times_ about the Cadence vs. Avant lawsuit. They were using similarities in the source code to try to prove code had been copied. I think the variable names were all different, but they were looking for similar patterns of stange indenting and punctuation. I think the guy doing the code analysis does it full time. Of course, you would probably need to get a court order to get access to the disputed source code for comparison. -- Lee Bradshaw [EMAIL PROTECTED] (preferred) Alantro Communications [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
