Okay folks, let’s get a few things clear here: Yes, we all know that some official source code for a few of Microsoft’s A/V codecs made it into the wrong hands and is now floating around the internet. Understand that you are not l33t h4X0r if you happen to receive this file. Also, quit sending it to me. I do not want it. I delete it upon receipt. I may have to implement a special mail filter to deal with it.

Realize that this could taint us. I have no problem with ripping open a publically-available binary decoder to discover an algorithm inside (and if they happen to leave the debug symbols compiled in, oops, file that under “their problem” category).

If it makes you feel any better, there are some people who have already glanced at the code and discovered that it covers algorithms that we have already largely reverse engineered, a long time ago, via legitimate methods.

Microsoft should come up with bogus, red herring source code samples and periodically “leak” them, just to give the -ahem- “hacker underground” something to salivate over and feel special about.

…sigh… and I had really hoped to avoid creating a legal/ethical category for this blog…