I normally don't get involved in such debates, but...
On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Tim Salo wrote:
> We should all applaud those who make their object code, source code,
> protocol specifications, and/or documentation freely available. But,
> we shouldn't feel we have a right to insist that everyone ought to
> make their intellectual property freely available.
Well, it depends a bit on the commitment it requires to use the product.
If you buy a can opener you'll probably be able to use it with very
little effort invested in installing it, making it fit in with the rest
of your kitchen, and so on. But a lot of software requires a substantial
effort on the part of the purchaser to make it work in the first place and
to keep it going as the environment in which it is used changes. There is
no legal requirement for the seller of software to provide support
forever, but it seems to me the honorable thing is, if you are going to
abandon a product, to either find someone else willing to support it or to
give the community of users who have supported you the help they might
need (source code) to continue supporting it themselves.
I recognize it's a special case when software gets ripped off, the writer
probably doesn't really want to help those who have stolen it, but some
effort to help those who have paid for it would seem, again, the honorable
thing to do.
73, Al N1AW
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| Albert S. Woodhull |
| Hampshire College, Amherst, MA |
| [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
| http://minix1.hampshire.edu/asw/ |
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