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If someone were to break Microsoft licensing terms and give me a copy of windows code

Then if I read that and built my own understanding

Then if I used that knowledge to implement my own version of windows that was compatible with Microsoft’s and distributed it under my own license

Would that be legal?

WINE etc are built in clean room environments for good reasons.




This. It shouldn't matter whether copyright violation was generated by a human brain or via an instrument (AI). ReactOS developers also rely on clean room approach: https://reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS_FAQ#Is_ReactOS_based_on_Mic...


You can find the Windows XP source code publicly on github right now. So I'm not sure how serious MS actually is about this...




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