Subject: Re: Ethics o' Code-Liftin'

From: Quinn Avery <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 12:53:44 -0800

"stupid spam verb written by BeanBreath for RudeDudeMOO"
"Please ask permission before porting"

And also put a sign in your front yard reading "I'd rather you
 not steal my stuff and rape my grandmother without asking."

And when you take an exam, make sure you write in big bold red
 ink at the top: "Please don't copy off of me!"

And when you're reading a story to everone in your creative
 writing class, tell them AGAIN and AGAIN that you don't want
 them to xerox the story and sell it themselves.

---

From: John William Chambless <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 13:55:29 -0800

>  ink at the top: "Please don't copy off of me!"

I think you're missing the spirit of the thing. All the examples you give 
are of things that are pretty clearly immoral -- most people would
prefer that you not rape their grandmother.

But in the MOO community, there is a spirit of helping one another, or at
least there is among some members of said community.

MOO lets you set permissions to your code for that very reason--to
give the creator the option of sharing his/her work or not.

The whole point of my suggestion was to let the creator's wishes be known.
There are many software developers who would rather not re-invent the wheel,
and would like to help others avoid re-inventing it.

Adding a comment or two to let people know how you feel is a simple precaution.

-- 
* In Real Life: Billy Chambless		    University of Southern Mississippi 
* [email-masked]