Good for google!
They hire themselves into fame and therefore look "good" in the process.
If the individual thinks that the money is worth it for him/her we have
a transaction. Nowhere do I see any ethical questions. Google is in it
for the money and someone needs to pay a mortgage. End of transaction.
Both parties benefit.
I am going to say something that most people will frown upon but here
goes. Writing open/free source code is mostly a selfish activity.
That's right I said it. I'd bet money that most people that write code
and give it away do it because they can and make themselves feel better
in the process (resume padding, fame, power in the community,
$my_reason_for_writing_free_code etc). They don't do it for altruistic
reasons like "ZOMG I am stopping world hunger with OMGOS". I am of the
opinion that all these so called ethical questions are trivial and
uninteresting. A company selling software is in no way shape or form
unethical provided they abide by the law. You might disagree with their
way of doing business but that really doesn't make it "unethical"; maybe
questionable behavior or unwanted behavior but really ethics are really
only applied to much more interesting life events.
Ask yourself this question. Do you really believe that someone who
sells a product which was developed within the lawful frame work is
unethical? Also ask yourself the question if you like computers and the
internets and if it would exist if it wasn't for some people making money
of it. Do you work in the field of IT? Are you therefore unethical?
On Thu, Jan 03, 2008 at 09:44:00AM -0700, Jack J. Woehr wrote:
