[H-GEN] Fwd: [research] Request for expert witness

[andrew laidlaw]

Peter McConnell <mcconnell at southernphone.com.au> wrote: [ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
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I have no idea from the content of this letter, how this matter
relates:
        1. To myself.
        2. To the Open Source community.

A programmer is employed by a company for a peiod of time to
develop something, which was copied from somewhere else. He
then leaves and uses the code in direct opposition to his
original employer.
I would question the ethics of this person. 



A relativistic concern.  Prima facie, I would argue that the first responsibility of anyone designing a system is DALAP (Do As Little As Possible).  This whole IP nonsense came into our culture only recently, during the time of Queen Anne, along with the printing press, to protect certain vested interests.  Until then, it was open slather, as - arguably - it should be.  After all, how can anyone claim an idea to be their "own" when they've been educated by the society, and exposed to the accumulated wealth of its knowledge base?  1% individual talent, 99% accidents of history.  IMO, we all drink at the tap, we all own the water.  

If this was an LUG in China, Taiwan, India or Brazil, I doubt any correspondent would have had such qualms - so the concern is relative both to our own time and to our own location.  

I'd like to think one can aim a litlle higher in setting one's own ethical standards.  

The culture in which many software programmers operate is of course distinct in it's own right.  What the original protagonist did may or may not be illegal (both times),  but that is a very different question, one for a court to decide. We all have a duty to respect the law, and that frequently coincides with what might also be held to constitute ethical behaviour, but - as any lawyer knows - they are not the same thing.

I'd have thought it was a part and parcel implication of an "open" community that one would try to avoid providing currency to such a trap.
 

regards....  andrew.




 	      
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