Re: plagiarism of reiserfs by Debian
On Tue, Apr 22, 2003 at 02:53:38PM +1000, Martin Pool wrote:
> Debian should not stomp all over the author's intentions if it is
> reasonably avoidable. The alternatives do not seem to have been
> adequately explored.
You're forgetting that we don't really know what Reiser's intentions
are. His complaints don't address anything specific, but instead throw
out terms like plagiarism and bowdlerization in order to avoid listing
specific complaints. Reiser didn't discuss this with the maintainer and
come to an agreement, but instead threw a hissy fit accusing the whole
project of some abstract crimes. We don't know if the problem is due to
the accidental removal of the credits list from the documentation, or
if it's from the 24 line credit list from the software itself. Maybe
it's both, but Hans isn't helping us figure it out. So how is the
maintainer supposed to figure out resonable alternatives if no one can
figure out what we're finding alternatives to?
> I say "it ought to be obvious", because Hans put the message in there
> intending it to be prominent, rather than (say) putting it in a doc
> file. It is reasonable to assume that he cared about putting this
> message in front of everyone who used it. If you can't understand why
> removing it would annoy him then I really doubt your ability to
> cooperate with other people.
Honestly, how bad is removing this message? Is removing this really
plagiarism? No, as credits will be given as due in the credits file. Is
this bowlderization? Bowdler is a man who took Shakespeare and re-wrote
it to remove the sexual bits, trying to sterilize it. Somehow, I don't
think that's what's happening here in any fashion. Is Hans' art as a
programmer really hanging on this piece of code? It's not like this
affects the ability of the program to function properly, and in fact
probably makes it function better in more cases. So it's not like this
move is hurting anyone's reputation. And finally, does this move
prevent someone else from distributing the program in the pristine
manner that Reiser wants? No, he or someone else is welcome to make
unofficial debs and link them from apt-get.org for the world to use.
So, ultimately, what harm does this do to the author? If all he cares
about is his reputation, then he's certaintly not doing a good job of
bolstering it in this particular forum. He's not representing his
sponsors very well either.
- David
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