Date   : Tue, 10 May 1983 23:50:54 EDT (Tue)
From   : Rick Conn <rconn@brl.arpa>
Subject: Re: ZCPR2 and the PD

First of all, I believe that you have a right to your opinions as
I  have  a  right to mine.  I'm not trying to change your opinion
(well, maybe I am), and I am writing this simply  to  express  my
feelings on the subject.

I don't classify what Workman is doing as piracy.  Piracy implies
that  legal  harm  is  being done, such as stealing from someone.
Stealing copies of CP/M is piracy since harm is being done to  DR
(in  the form of a loss of income that would be there if the pro-
duct was sold instead).  Selling PD software  isn't  causing  any
harm  that I can see.  I don't feel a loss of money because Work-
man is selling ZCPR2.

This does NOT  mean,  however,  that  I  approve  of  selling  PD
software.   I  don't feel that it is morally right to take advan-
tage of the generosity of others in this manner.  In the case  of
ZCPR2,  Workman asked me for permission and offered a percentage.
I granted the permission (rationale:  to  provide  a  source  for
those  who  were not successful or did not desire to tap into the
PD) but declined the percentage (rationale:  maintaining my  phi-
losophy  of  giving it away in the first place).  I don't believe
that Workman asked the other PD authors for permission (I know he
didn't  for  my  old  HELP system), and I believe this is morally
wrong, but I also believe he has the right to do this by the sim-
ple fact that it IS in the public domain.

As for advertising on this net, I agree completely that  this  is
wrong.  I don't believe, tho, that what Jerry did was advertising
(unless Jerry is getting a percentage of the sales, which I don't
think  he is).  If Workman came on and sent a message saying "I'm
selling so-and-so for $$$", then THAT would be advertising.   As-
suming  that  Workman  did not ask Jerry to make the announcement
and that Jerry was passing it on only for  information  purposes,
then  Jerry  used  the  net to pass on information of interest to
others, which is a big part of what the net is  for.   My  saying
that  Rolm's Ada Language System is to be validated by the end of
May or that the 68010 is on the market for $20 and here's what it
does is passing information, which is fine, and I don't call this
advertising since advertising has, as I feel, an  implication  of
profit to the person who passes the information in this case.

Note that, by the dictionary, simply making a  public  notice  is
advertising, so if advertising is to be banned from the ARPA Net,
we may as well shut down the electronic mailing lists now.

        Rick