Wine 5.0 released

[Posted January 21, 2020 by ris]

Wine 5.0 has been released. The main highlights are builtin modules in PE format, multi-monitor support, XAudio2 reimplementation, and Vulkan 1.1 support. Wine is capable of running Windows applications on Linux and other POSIX-compliant systems.

Wine 5.0 released

Posted Jan 24, 2020 2:24 UTC (Fri) by ccchips (subscriber, #3222) [Link] (11 responses)

As described at https://www.zdnet.com/article/wine-for-running-windows-10...

"Microsoft last week filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Google's position against Oracle's claim that software application programming interfaces (APIs) can be copyrighted. Google's case in the US Supreme Court is scheduled for March."

I guess H. "Rap" Brown was right: "What goes around comes around...."

Wine 5.0 released

Posted Jan 24, 2020 20:21 UTC (Fri) by rahvin (guest, #16953) [Link] (9 responses)

Honestly, if API's are copyrightable the entire industry is in peril, including Oracle. If the API ruling is upheld the entire software industry is going to besieged with lawsuits. You see that in these Amicus brief's from all the major players the threat here is very real and it's astounding to me that Oracle themselves don't realize how detrimental that ruling could be to Oracle themselves.

Wine 5.0 released

Posted Jan 25, 2020 17:48 UTC (Sat) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

I always say that IBM should sue Oracle for stealing SQL ...

Cheers,
Wol

Wine 5.0 released

Posted Jan 25, 2020 21:32 UTC (Sat) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

I've seen arguments that SQL being an ISO standard throws a wrench into that approach. Their S3 API usage is probably a better angle of retaliation there. Though Oracle's complaints about Android being purposefully incompatible with Java-the-standard (the verification suite) may be able to be boomeranged right back at them for still calling their dialect "SQL"…

API copyright

Posted Jan 26, 2020 22:49 UTC (Sun) by dps (guest, #5725) [Link] (6 responses)

Copyright *does* have an expiry date, with very few exceptions. In the UK I believe that peter pan has no expiry date but everything else does. However copyright term is very long and subject to extension when a major corporation risks something valuable becoming freely available (e.g. Mickey Mouse).

In the EU an API is one a list of things which are specifically not subject to copyright, period. Implementations of an API are protected and those who gain traction have the advantage that their version reaches the market first. Note that the EU does have "look and feel" copyright which, while it has some limitations, might be usable by sufficiently creative lawyers. Acts like implementing a key compatible programs on something a vendor does not support are specifically permitted.

Also note that copyright law actually grants people some rights, for example any act of copying which is part of normally experiencing something. Thus copying data from a DVD into memory inside a DVD player is never copyright violation.

The information above is not legal advice: if you want that then consult a lawyer who knows about this area.

API copyright

Posted Jan 26, 2020 23:11 UTC (Sun) by jafd (subscriber, #129642) [Link] (1 responses)

The King James Version of the Bible has got a royal copyright with no expiry as well.

API copyright

Posted Jan 27, 2020 9:14 UTC (Mon) by beagnach (guest, #32987) [Link]

> The King James Version of the Bible has got a royal copyright with no expiry as well.

The modern legal concept of copyright post-dates the King James Bible by several hundred years. I believe the KJV is under perpetual Crown Copyright, which at that time was intended to give certain publishers a monopoly on printing forever - something quite different from modern copyright.
In any case it seems this right was not exercised by the printers or enforced by the Crown so the KJV is believed to be effectively public domain.

This is my rough understanding of the situation. If someone more knowledgeable cares to correct me please do.

API copyright

Posted Jan 26, 2020 23:17 UTC (Sun) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (3 responses)

> Copyright *does* have an expiry date, with very few exceptions.
120 years in the US. It might as well be infinite.

API copyright

Posted Jan 27, 2020 22:44 UTC (Mon) by dvdeug (guest, #10998) [Link] (2 responses)

It's (way, way) more complex than that; see https://copyright.cornell.edu/publicdomain . If you insist on a two word summary, "95 years" would be more accurate than "120 years". Works that were published pre-1978 or corporate works get 95 years from publication; corporate works get 120 years from creation only if that's shorter than 95 years from publication. So if IBM first publishes the PL/I compiler source from 1970 today, they could only claim 120 years from 1970, not 95 years from 2020.

As for infinite, it's way too long. But works published in 1924 left copyright this year, most importantly probably Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, and next year we get the Great Gatsby, and every year a host of works ranging from the still valued to the mostly forgotten and ripe for rediscovery get found. It is way too long for an API copyright, or anything really, but we should not be blind to the wonders getting freed each year.

API copyright

Posted Jan 28, 2020 9:34 UTC (Tue) by epa (subscriber, #39769) [Link] (1 responses)

Steamboat Willie isn't due to enter the public domain until 2024. There's still plenty of time for another extension.

API copyright

Posted Jan 28, 2020 23:04 UTC (Tue) by dvdeug (guest, #10998) [Link]

No, there's not. It'd have to go through Congress, unlike net neutrality, and Congress right now would have trouble passing anything, especially with the amount of blowback a copyright extension would get. If Disney really wanted another copyright extension before 2024, they wouldn't have waited until now to start on it, and there's not a whisper of such a proposal. It's not like Steamboat Willie really matters; Mickey is protected by trademark, still has copyrights on more recent forms, and has value as a mascot more than a character.

On the other hand, in 2033, Snow White will go into the public domain, followed by the movies Gone With the Wind, and the Wizard of Oz in 2035, all of which have current value, unlike Steamboat Willie. Then Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo will go, and not too long after Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, etc. will follow. So, yeah, I think there's going to be a try for another extension. Which is a reason why we need to not say "it may as well be infinite." It's a reason for us to say "getting these things into the public domain is awesome, and we're ready and willing to make a huge fuss about it." It's reason to loudly remind the world that Pinocchio was published in 1884, less than 60 years before Disney appropriated it, and it's about time we get to use Disney's version. Being complacent is just going to make it easier to steal the public domain from us.

Wine 5.0 released

Posted Jan 24, 2020 20:30 UTC (Fri) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

If APIs are copyrightable then all the hell will break loose. Unlike patents, copyright doesn't have expiration and you can easily sue for past damages.

Just imagine lawyers arguing if Microsoft should have paid for the use of CP/M APIs in DOS.

Wine 5.0 released

Posted Jan 24, 2020 10:50 UTC (Fri) by pixelpapst (guest, #55301) [Link] (1 responses)

The "builtin modules in PE format" are a pretty big deal IMHO, and something of a hidden transition. From the detailed release notes:

- Most modules are built in PE format (Portable Executable, the
  Windows binary format) instead of ELF when the MinGW compiler is
  available. This helps various copy protection schemes that check
  that the on-disk and in-memory contents of system modules are
  identical.

- The actual PE binaries are copied into the Wine prefix instead of
  the fake DLL files. This makes the prefix look more like a real
  Windows installation, at the cost of some extra disk space.

- Modules that have been converted to PE can use standard wide-char C
  functions, as well as wide-char character constants like L"abc".
  This makes the code easier to read.

- Not all modules have been converted to PE yet; this is an ongoing
  process that will continue during the Wine 5.x development series.

- The Wine C runtime is updated to support linking to MinGW-compiled
  binaries; it is used by default instead of the MinGW runtime when
  building DLLs.

It will be interesting to see what impact this will have on reversing workflows, as well as game compatibility in steam etc.
Of course, the fact that we're still talking about wide-vs-narrow char ABIs 27 years after the invention of UTF-8 does not reflect well on Microsoft's chosen unicode migration strategy.

Wine 5.0 released

Posted Jan 25, 2020 1:03 UTC (Sat) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

> the fact that we're still talking about wide-vs-narrow char ABIs 27 years after the invention of UTF-8 does not reflect well on Microsoft's chosen unicode migration strategy.

Well, they started moving when UCS-2/UTF-16 was The One Solution, so it's at least understandable. Java and JavaScript are in the same unfortunate boat there. There are plans to make UTF-8 the default codepage for Windows at some point, but I don't know of any planned release dates.