Re: Think About It

[snit@nevada.edu (Snit)]

Derek Taubert (derek@slab.isdn.uiuc.edu) wrote:
: In <4t6dg0$ffk@nyx10.cs.du.edu> Will Baguhn wrote:
: > Personally, I'm inclined to think that developers shouldn't care too much
: > so long as their stuff isn't copied... and the people who have stopped 
: making
: > money on it at all shouldn't care at all.  Obviously, you have a different
: > opinion, as you still sell some of the things that exist on Asimov.
: 
: This attitude simply repulses me.  I suppose you advocate that we shouldn't 
: care too much if other people are starving or being oppressed as long as it 
: isn't happening to us.  How selfish can you possibly be?  It is extremely 
: naive to think that pirates will selectively not copy the work of a single 
: individual verses any other developer.
: 
But if it is made public and the site is perfectly willing to remove
it (and makes an attempt to contact the author first), you are not
hurt, and neither is any other author.  Granted, there may be those
authors of software that do not keep up with the news group or have
any other convienient way of learning about the placement of the code,
but if they have made themselves unreachable and make no effort to
stay in contact with what they write AND do not make their long terms
beliefs about their software known with the docs that come with it,
then I would assume that very few would care.  Are their
counter-examples to this?  Has anybody heard a recent (say in the last
year or so) example of somebody posting to this news group and
otherwise trying to contact a software complany or an individual and
failing?  And then, of course, having the person become angered or sue
or anything of the nature.

Giving away software that others are legally selling OR giving it away
in contradiction of the authors wishes is undoubtedly wrong.  But I do
not think most of the software in question falls into the catagory.
Does ANY of it?  (Could be - I have not followed this thread too
closely.  If I am wrong, please enlighten me).