I am not sure I should talk about this because I didn't get explicit permission, but my gut feeling tells me it's OK.

The other day I mentioned that I thought it was a myth that Microsoft developers couldn't look at open source code due to fear that their work would be contaminated. I don't know where I heard this, but I assumed it was a myth, mainly because of the shear volume of open source software in the world today - how could you not look at it?!

So last night, I went to Phil Haack's geek dinner and asked Brad Wilson about this. He confirmed that it is not a myth, and described some of the rules around the policy - it's not simply a blanket "nooo! don't look!!!!" policy.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately because of the fact that I look at a lot of open source source code. I hadn't really thought to much about the responsibilities this implies until learning about the MS-RL and some people's concerns about it (here's a great summary, BTW.)