There is any way to access directly a dll internal classes without copyright infringment?

Question

I need to use some of the Microsoft.SqlServer.Types library internal classes. This is a .NET dll, which is easily disassembled to the language of my choice.

So far I could copy its code to my application, but this probably makes my application legally unsuitable for distribution (I haven't read the MS Sql Server 2008 licensing agreement, but I guess I can't do that).

There is any way to force my application to be Friendly of the dll? As far as I know the InternalsVisibleTo attribute is under strict control of the assembly developer, in this case Microsoft.

Answer 1

This is a relatively common problem - there are some useful classes within the runtime that are marked internal and are otherwise unavailable for use.

Use of [InternalsVisibleTo] is, as you mention, entirely under control of the assembly developer - as this attribute is intended to allow co-developed assemblies to share code that isn't visible to the unwashed masses.

Copying code verbatim would almost certainly be a problem as well.

What you can do (and remember IANAL - I am not a lawyer) is to develop your own variation, giving full credit to the original Assembly.

Answer 2

You could use reflection (ie the Activator class) to access and use hidden (private, internal) types. While this will not provide fantastic performance, it may be an option.