Karsten M. Self
kmself@ix.netcom.com
(707) 251-9956

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

 

Bradford L. Smith
Sr. Vice President and General Counsel
Law & Corporate Affairs
Microsoft Corp.
(425) 936-7329 (fax)

Mr. Smith:

In light of current concerns over the provenance of software intellectual property, including contract and copyright claims concerning free and open source software, and asking on behalf of a website presenting information on such matters to the community (http://twiki.iwethey.org/), I would appreciate your answering the following question:

What components and percentage of Microsoft software products are derived from free, open source, or otherwise publicly available sources?  

For the purposes of this question, I'll limit interest to operating system, office, and backoffice (server) products, and specifically exclude works licensed under a recognized OSI Open Source license such as GNU utilities accompanying or supplemental to the Unix Services for NT product.

An email response is preferred.

Your time in responding to this question is very greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

(s) Karsten M. Self
Maintainer, TWikIWeThey