On Fri, Jan 04, 2008 at 12:48:57PM +1100, Ioan Nemes wrote:

quoted text
> > Ask yourself this question.  Do you really believe that someone who

> > sells a product which was developed within the lawful frame work is

> > unethical?

>

> You confusing the issue!  The software market - where you sell your product

> (i.e., software) is unethical,

> distorted and manipulated, and not by the ethical software crafters!  A

> `win-win` case?  No, I don't think

> so, it smells like a Fridmanite axiom to me.

Many things sold by big business in the business market place have some

ethical problems.  For example, I personally don't shop at WallMart and

avoid as much as possible buying things from China.  However, I was

unable to find a new MB that was NOT made in China.  The only thing good

about WallMart is that in most small towns it promts the town to remove

parking meeters downtown.
Don't confuse "legal" with "ethical".  They are, unfortunatly, totally

distinct.  Many ethical things are legal and many legal things are

ethical but there are a times when an ethical act may be illegal and

there are many many times when an unethical act is legal.  
An individual who goes into the widget-invention business to put food on

the table is not inherently unethical if the widget in question is a

piece of software.  If the widge were a fax machine, I could sit down in

a machine shop and make an exact physical replica but unless I can read

the chips I can't duplicate the software on those chips that make the

fax machine anything more than a paperweight.  It is this distinction

which generates some philisophical debate.  Just as the phyicality of

the fax machine is "open source" where I could improve on it, I couldn't

then sell my improved version due to a likely patent on that model of

fax machine unless I did something totally new, patented it myself, and

made my fax machine look nothing like its inspiration.  Sure, as the

designer of a new-and-better fax machine, it would be nice to have the

source for those chips, the company doesn't have any incentive for

giving me that source even if it came with a license clause that forbade

distributing modified versions.  I don't see, though, how the company's

refusal to give me the source for the fax machine software is unethical.
Dou  Sure, as the designer of a new-and-better fax machine, it would be

nice to have the source for those chips, the company doesn't have any

incentive for giving me that source even if it came with a license

clause that forbade distributing modified versions.  I don't see,

though, how the company's refusal to give me the source for the fax

machine software is unethical.
Doug.