[Freeciv] should I?

["Brandon Van Every" <vanevery@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> "Brandon Van Every" <vanevery@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > You're nuts.  Clearly you don't know anything about corporate law,
> > blah, blah, blah.
>
> You're unpleasant.  Clearly you think you know more than you do.

Did you crack the www.antimonopoly.com webpage that I gave you?  You'd
have to be nuts to read that and think you wanna make a career of
fighting Hasbro.  It had better be *damn* worth your time.  As for what
I know, you don't have to rely on me, go to misc.legal.computing.

> > being a game developer, I think you need to stop biting off other
> > people's stuff and quit being so cheap that you can't cough up
> > $10..$20 for the legitimate work of other game developers.  Sheesh,
> > I bought Civ II: TOT for $20 at full retail!
>
> Aha, here we have, gentlemen, the nubb of the matter.  This person is
> not giving dispassionate advice,

Advice does not have to be dispassionate to be worthwhile.

> he has a chip on his shoulder.

Frankly, I think cloning instead of invention is only one step better
than software piracy.  What really bugs me is you go to all this work,
all this trouble, and you *can't be bothered* to invent anything new??!?

> Maybe we could have a whip-round and pay him back his $20 at full
retail!

I'm quite happy to have handed my money to the Civ II developers, if not
to the brick-and-mortar retail industry, but hey it was only $20 and not
the typical $30..$40 damages asked for, which I almost never pay.

If it were my product and I found a website like www.freeciv.org I'd
just sue.  But it isn't my product, and Hasbro is fairly evil so I'm not
crying about their hardships.  Still, I don't feel any pity for people
who rip off intellectual property in the name of free software.  Free
software is about developers *agreeing* to license people in a
particular way, not just taking what you want that someone else did.
The design of game rules is a lot of hard work consuming many hours,
same as writing a screenplay, and you're wrong if you think just lifting
someone else's work is ok in any legal or moral sense.  You didn't do
the work that makes Civ II what it is, you aren't even trying to make
Civ better than it is, you exist mainly to cut out the profits of the
people who did do the legitimate work.  If someday you get what's coming
to you at least you'll have been warned well in advance.  Regardless of
whether I "feel for you," am dispassionate, or think you're all a bunch
of lazy jerks.  Game designer laziness and "uuuh, we think we're ok
legally" just ain't gonna cut it when (if?) the hammer falls.

Anyways, take at as friendly or hostile advice, all of what I've said.
I really don't care whether you think I'm being friendly, hostile, or
neutral about it.  I know people hate being told what to do; rest
assured I can't tell you what to do.

Well, I suppose I could perform the experiment of informing Hasbro about
your site.  I could even go to the trouble of tracking down exactly the
person or people at Hasbro who are most sue-happy.  I rat out software
pirates to Microsoft's anti-piracy line even though I'd rather see Linux
stomp Microsoft into the dust, so such action would certainly suit my
ethics just fine.  Would anyone like me to perform the Hasbro
experiment?  Just as an acid test of "what I know?"  Hey, maybe it'll
substantiate that really there's absolutely nothing to worry about.  ;-)


Cheers,             Infernal Troublemaker                    Troll
Mallor              "By simple mistake, mortals themselves amuse."