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Re: A letter for Mr. Darl McBride - personal use



On Sun, Feb 01, 2004 at 05:55:27PM -0500, Brett Carrington wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 01, 2004 at 04:42:25PM -0600, John Hasler wrote:
> > rthoreau@iwon.com wrote:
> > > I admit it I am a leach, I take stuff off Usenet for my personal gain
> > > once in a while I post something of value, but overall I take more than I
> > > give.
> > 
> > You are not a leach.  A leach takes something away from the host: when the
> > leach is done the host has less blood then he had before.  When you make a
> > copy of my software you gain but I lose nothing.
> Except a chance to be paid back for you hard work, in either money or
> source code improvements. That's what you lose.

Not entirely true...

Other people copying your software are making a statement that your
software is of value to them. If there is no reason for them to hide
the fact of their copying, it amounts to free advertising for your
skills, which may be of value in future opportunities to be paid for
writing software.

With regard to source code improvements, the connection is more
concrete. Have a look at the BTS.

There is also a gain in the fact that you've done something that has
helped someone else.

-- 
Pigeon

Be kind to pigeons
Get my GPG key here: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x21C61F7F

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