[thelist] [OT] Gift Culture on the Net: A Rant

[Erik Mattheis]

At 12:39 PM -0400 8/19/01, Dwayne wrote:

[a great post]

<snip>
>when we're talking about decrypting CF code, or decrypting/decompiling any
>piece of code to which you have access, we're not talking about theft, but
>about pulling something apart to see how it works. the entire idea that this
>might be wrong is a very new one. until recently, it was impossible to
>prevent someone from taking a working thing apart to see what made it tick,
>so the ethical question of whether you should never really came up.
</snip>

Taking it a bit further, dycrypting code and modifying it for your 
own use is entirely different than dycrypting code and redistributing 
a modified version.

I looked for the CF Server license to find out if it actually 
prohibits you from modifying it for your own use, (couldn't find it - 
is it anywhere but in the installation process?) I imagine it does; 
but I have a hard time imagining that the way it was modified that 
was originally mentioned would be enforceable in court.

Seems everybody has made nice since I wrote this, but still the 
question is in my mind: what harm does MM suffer from someone 
customizing the admin pages for their own purposes?

I remember running a third party patch on PhotoShop 4 that fixed 
frequent crashes I was having ... also have done things to get CD 
burner software to work under newer OSes on both Mac and Win ... am I 
breaking license agreements by doing these things?

I could definitely see these actions voiding warantees, but 
considering it a breach of contract is ridiculous. Does anyone know 
of any test cases that speak to this issue?

When I design a website for someone, they're free to modify it any 
way they want, but I have exclusive rights to the code in the sense 
that I'm the only person who can use the code for the site in whole 
or part to use on a different website. And I think that's fair. I 
don't see any difference between that and modifying the CF Admin for 
my personal use. Maybe the license agreement says otherwise, but I 
don't think it's right.

-- 

- Erik Mattheis

Who reflects too much will accomplish little.

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