From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2006-05-17T04:10:37+09:00
Subject: Re: Ticked Off

On Wed, 17 May 2006, Paul D. Kraus wrote:

> Regardless, the author has NO i repeat NO obligation to provide his work to
> ANYONE for free EVER. Wrap your criminal behavior/intentions in all the nice
> fluff you want to justify it with but do NOT fool yourself it is still
> immoral, unethical, and criminal.

i'm afraid this doesn't fly in the open-source world.  if you are given to
then you are ethically bound to give to others what you can.  paying it
forward is how the open-source world works.  david wrote a book.  he's
ethically bound to give back.  fortunately for all of us he does so in many
ways, not least of which by providing sample chapters and countless answers on
this list.  nevertheless, it's a short sighted view to say that people using
freely given things should not, themselves, be ethically bound to give back in
whatever way they can.  creative works might be considered a little bit
different, but even iggy pop owes a very real debt to the works of bach - like
has been said many times : there is nothing new.

morals, ethics, and crime are all relativistic ideas so let's not be too harsh
in our judgements - we all live in glass houses.  let's just say it would be
really great for as many people to buy david's book as possible.  he has given
back to the community in many ways and deserves our support for what, people
are saying, is a fine book.

-a
-- 
be kind whenever possible... it is always possible.
- h.h. the 14th dali lama