MS Going Big Brother?

When I saw this post by Adam Kessel which pointed to Microsoft goes after Linux kernel downloaders? story posted to the Linux-elitists list I have to wonder if it’s an early april fools joke. The short story is someone put a copy of the Linux kernel source code in a torrent and posted with a title of “Kernel source here”.


Next day is cable is shut down due to a complaint to his ISP that he was distributing the (leaked earlier this week) source code for Windows 2000 and/or NT4 (letter from MS included in the post).


My question, assuming the original post was not a joke or troll of course, would be is Microsoft taking the role of Big Brother that seriously without any brains at all? Do they check anything? A 30 megabyte .tar.bz2 file looks a lot different to a multi-gigabyte dump of the windows source code. Joke in good taste or not, I’d assume that before you send your lawyers down on someone for distributing something they shouldn’t, you check to see that the file they are distributing is indeed what you think it is. Or maybe the source code is so heavily NDAed the people looking for sharers won’t even look for fear of being accused themselves?


Of course, if this is a troll (the mailing list is called linux-elitists after all), please ignore all the above and remember that Microsoft is a good and loving father, whom I shall never doubt.

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Category: Technology

3 Comments on “MS Going Big Brother?”

  1. Holy crap batman. How stupid. Assuming this isn’t a troll…. thats just nuts. Give a lawyer an inch, he performs a “bobbit” and cuts of the whole thing.
    What gets me is how did Microsoft know about the p2p? Depending on the client, when started they are abiding by the rules and regulations of the connections. As such, aren’t they in violation of abusing the p2p net to spy and illicit business activities (ie: The business of being a nuisance to Net users and going after them)
    This is just getting silly.

  2. Was it a post on a p2p or a website or mailing list or what? The l-e post isn’t really that clear on that part of it. Just ‘A post entitled “Kernel source here,” which pointed to a torrent of Linux 2.6.2….’

  3. Very late reply.
    The “kernel source here” post was to Slashdot in response to the Windows source code leak, so that reply was a troll. But no — it isn’t a joke or a troll that MS got Speakeasy to disable my account for offering a Linux download. That much is factual.
    You can find a copy of the legal letter in the linux-elitist archives at zgp.org.