Yet, if you pick the right lines out of the WINE source-code, it will look eerily similar to the Windows source-code. And not by coincidence: if Windows' code h

Yet, if you pick the right lines out of the WINE source-code, it will look eerily similar to the Windows source-code. And not by coincidence: if Windows' code had looked different, WINE code would have looked different too. And the important thing is that the Windows code could easily have looked different. It was a creative process that led to what it was. WINE is a derivative work. Copyright law needs to be clarified to allow this without licence. Just like you're allowed to refer to a competitor's brand if you follow the rules in trademark law. It's one of those things where you think legislation should be rushing to fix it to remove uncertainty. Instead, a good chunk of senators is comfortable letting the Ellisons of this world make other people's life harder in negative-sum games.