Eric Rucker wrote:
On Jun 5, 2:12 pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:tom wrote:On Jun 4, 1:32 am, PZ <skierp...@yahoo.com> wrote:Its not like he dug a defunct site out of the depths of the Wayback Machine Internet Archive, and casually omitted the copyright notice. This is a blatant act of swiping an actively maintained site, the intent became clear once he put his name in place of yours. I agree with the above posters, go after the host first, that should be the easiest to access, then pursue more drastic measures, if that doesn't work. I don't think its selfish at all to want to protect something that you care about. This was and still is your baby. - PaulI agree. This experience echoes that of me and some other faq maintainers from way back (I used to maintain different ones, among them the comp.emulator.apple2 faq). In violation of the copyright notices, some company just scooped up all the faqs and started selling them on cd. A bunch of the faq volunteers quit, since it was so easy for their work to be taken.) Abraham Lincoln made a reference to people "wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces" in his second inauguration -- that seems to apply here. You put up the content, you did the work, they swiped it, put their name on it, and seek to profit by it. Those who suggest this might be a good thing are ignoring the fact that this is wrong wrong wrong and illegal. No way should someone be encouraged to profit from this kind of theft. You also note that the straightforward legal procedures would involve expensive lawsuits, a step you haven't taken yet. I would proceed with the actions with the isp host, and I think you can count of support from some members of this forum.Yes, your feelings and perceptions of injustice are quite reasonable. But it's worth stopping to consider the reason for doing the work in the first place. If you did the work for your own benefit (money, power, glory), then you have reason to feel thwarted by someone distributing your work (particularly without attribution). But if you did the work as a service to the community, then wider distribution actually furthers your goals, regardless of the means. I remember going through a very similar thought process many years ago when I was trying to decide whether to release a program as shareware or freeware. I decided that my intent was never to make anything from my efforts, so I released it as freeware. Of course, there is a benefit in maintaining some kind of "version control" over anything released, to preserve some consistency. This is sacrificed when copies are made, but that kind of physical diversity is *exactly* what makes the information more durable in the real world. -michael ******** Note new website URL ******** NadaNet and AppleCrate II for Apple II parallel computing! Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/ "The wastebasket is our most important design tool--and it's seriously underused."Hey guys, take a look at what I came up with. http://bhtooefr.ath.cx/files/applecrate.htm Now how does it feel?
See how easy it is? Would you like to become an official mirror site? ;-) And aren't you glad that I'm communicating with you instead of loosing the dogs? ;-) Actually, I've already had the experience of someone appropriating my software (and historical documentation) without appropriate attribution, and I recall being quite angry for a while. (He had requested a copy of my code as the basis for a program he was writing and I said sure, as long as I was credited.) I immediately sent a message expressing my concern, only to find that he was unresponsive. His "derivative work" which was distributed with fanfare about coming attractions was apparently abandoned less than a month after its debut. That didn't keep it from becoming widely circulated, and in several cases cited as the originator of the technique. I found that the anger subsided fairly quickly, though, and I can even appreciate that he did attempt a useful generalization (but with bad manners ;-). (BTW, I haven't seen any sign of him on any forum for over a decade.) I hope that Steven's case is resolved happily and more completely. -michael ******** Note new website URL ******** NadaNet and AppleCrate II for Apple II parallel computing! Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/ "The wastebasket is our most important design tool--and it's seriously underused."