So, I've been a long-time Skim user and have experienced many ups and downs
with the software, but I have to keep coming back to it as it has long been
one of the best pdf annotation tools out there. Though I have found
Christiaan's replies to often be somewhat put-offish, I have also found him
to be an incredibly active developer and more than willing to respond to
anyone's reply about the software. In light of the fact that he has done
this for free, his dedication is commendable.
The reason that so many of us find this "developer's" behavior to be
despicable is that he clearly is trying to profit off of someone else's
hard-earned work without so much as a nod to those who did the work. Their
reason for making the software "free" is so that it can be the best
software possible (that's my guess, anyhow), and anyone who wants to
contribute to its progress may do so. When this developer can't be
bothered to so much as change the graphic, it communicates that the
evolution of the product is not what's on his mind. It then becomes
incumbent upon us to warn anyone who would purchase such software that the
developer has behaved unscrupulously. If I suspected a developer had done
next to nothing with a product s/he is selling, I would run away quickly,
as I would doubt any concerns or support needs would be met, should they
arise in the future.
I find Patrik's comments to be both enlightening and problematic. They are
enlightening because it highlights that there are a lot of enterprising
folks out there that don't believe there is a problem with such behavior if
the law allows it. Surprisingly, these people often make what many see as
"good" businessmen. This is problematic because it is exactly that
attitude that leads to the decline of civilization. Some believe their
morals need only go so far as what society deems to be ethical and puts
into law. That is a dangerous attitude because it suggest that we need to
depend on government to regulate all our rights and wrongs. Laws are
clearly needed, as people's beliefs about what is right/wrong are going to
differ, and we need a clear protocol for how to operate in and regulate
society so people know what to expect and how to interact with each other.
But if we go no further in our treatment of each other, society quickly
degenerates into a "me-first" society. Laws are only needed to regulate
people who refuse to regulate themselves. I tell this to my children all
the time. If they cannot control their temper toward each other, someone
else will have to control it for them—and that just introduces
restrictions, the opposite of freedom.
So, yes, Patrik, you are right; there are people who will take advantage of
others. In my experience living in 4 different countries, though, I have
seen entire societies that believe if you can take advantage of another and
you don't, then you are a fool. Funny thing is, those are the societies
that I never see progress. They end up in a constant cycle of corruption
and the introduction of stricter laws and enforcement. Morality transcends
laws and leads to greater freedom. Abuse of trust leads to more
restrictions and slows progress.
This is why I personally deplore this developer's actions. I am all for
people being paid for their hard work. The Skim developers could use a
good, business-minded PR-guy who can bring it to the fore. In my mind,
though, Someone else mindlessly ripping off their product does little to
benefit anyone but that developer.
/soapbox
-Peter-
On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 12:57 PM, Patrik Jonsson <
[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 1:04 PM, Christiaan Hofman <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> > There's also a small matter of behavior. The fact that, strictly
> speaking, you;re allowed to does not mean you should take advantage of
> that. There's no cost in asking, and he didn't. Not even in the most
> minimal and legally required way. Quite frankly, this freeloading behavior
> I find the most upsetting, and if we can punish him for that maximally for
> this by removing it from the App Store I support that.
>
> With all due respect, I think you have an unrealistic view of
> humanity. To many people, "the fact that strictly speaking you are
> allowed to" means exactly that: you are allowed to, and expecting
> otherwise will just cause you to get upset.
>
> Moreover, apart from the fact that he's violating the terms of the
> license by not retaining the copyright, I really fail to see what this
> is about. The Skim license allows redistribution, commercial or not,
> and one of the fundamental rights given to users of free software is
> the right do do whatever they want with it, within the terms of he
> license, *without asking for permission*.
>
> If you look in chapter 8 of RMS's "free software, free society"
> (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/fsfs/rms-essays.pdf) he says:
>
> "Many people believe that the spirit of the GNU project is that you
> should not charge money for distributing copies of software, or that
> you should charge as little as possible—just enough to cover the cost.
> Actually, we encourage people who redistribute free software to charge
> as much as they wish or can. If this seems surprising to you, please
> read on.
> The word “free” has two legitimate general meanings; it can refer
> either to freedom or to price. When we speak of “free software,” we’re
> talking about freedom, not price. Specifically, it means that a user is
> free to run the program, change the program, and redistribute the
> program with or without changes."
>
> It seems to me that this is *exactly* what he's talking about.
>
> cheers,
>
> /Patrik
>
>
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--
Peter Rich, PhD
peter_rich [at] byu [dot] edu
Instructional Psychology & Technology
Brigham Young University
Provo, Ut 84602
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