Microsoft will release a Windows 7 tool under the open-source license GPL after it had violated the terms of the license by not making it open source after modifying the code. The tool in question, the ImageMaster USB/DVD, allows users to create a bootable USB version of the Windows 7 DVD, or a DVD backup, from the electronic version of Windows 7, which can be found at the Microsoft Store online.
Well, after pulling down the software because of an internal investigation and a story publically revealing Microsoft’s code violation, it found that it did use code licensed under the GPL and will make its source code and binaries public, though it did say it was “not intentional”.
“After looking at the code in question, we are now able to confirm this was indeed the case, although it was not intentional on our part. While we had contracted with a third party to create the tool, we share responsibility as we did not catch it as part of our code review process,” Peter Galli, the Open Source Community Manager for Microsoft, wrote on its Port25 blog.
“We have furthermore conducted a review of other code provided through the Microsoft Store and this was the only incident of this sort we could find.”
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