Well, there is the question about whether Microsoft would really want
a law which made it illegal to duplicate the (unpatented) design of a
competitor's product, given that Microsoft does that *all* the time.
(Think Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel, just to name one example.)
In the business world, engineers purchase competitors' products and
rip them apart to see what makes them tick *all* *the* *time*. Ford
does it GM cars, and Crystler does it to Toyota cars, etc., etc.
Anything important where they don't want that to happen is patented.
So I would find it very hard to believe that Microsoft or any other
corporate lobbiest would try to convince their national legislature to
pass laws that would prohibit some open source developer from cloning
and/or reverse-engineering BitKeeper. After all, that would also
outlaw a good part of what goes on all the time in the corporate
world...
- Ted
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