Does the license on the .NET framework allow distribution of derivative forms of it's code?

Question

I'd like to mimic a .NET class signature (and possibly some major pieces of implementation) in a C++ application. I plan on releasing said application under the Boost Software License. Specifically, I'd like to use the TimeSpan and DateTime interfaces, as well as some implementation I found using the handy dandy Reflector tool.

Would use of code obtained through Reflector this way violate the terms of the .NET Framework's license?

Answer 1

You cannot redistibute modifications of their BCL implementation (mscorlib) for commercial purposes. It is available under the Shared Source license, which allows you to use it for academic/personal use only.

The ECMA 335 standard requires that the BCL be implemented in any CLR implementation though, so you can duplicate the class and method names, but provide your own implementation behind them. You might want to look the mcs module from the mono-project, which is a free-to-use BCL implementation (MIT license, you can use as you want it.)