Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!vortex!lauren@rand-unix.ARPA From: lauren@rand-unix.ARPA Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: software ethics Message-ID: <8859@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Sat, 2-Mar-85 07:01:28 EST Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.8859 Posted: Sat Mar 2 07:01:28 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 5-Mar-85 02:05:49 EST Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA Lines: 22 I guess I'm just one of those old-fashioned sorts that likes to try abide by both the letter and the spirit of the law. If other people want to go out and play illicit games with other people's code, or decide that if they don't like the way an agreement is written they'll just ignore it, I guess that's their business. But I treat other people's software and trade secrets the same way I expect them to treat mine, which is to say I respect them. Your comment implies that it is OK to violate trade secret agreements if you personally think that they are unnecessarily strict or if you think that "nobody will know." I've seen these same arguments applied to other aspects of Unix and to other company's software as well. I think they're pretty lousy arguments. Excuse me for being ethical. It's attitudes like yours that have forced vendors into ever more restrictive agreements, copy protection schemes, and other similar sorts of things to try protect themselves. In any case, I suspect that this list can live without a rehash of this whole subject, again. --Lauren--