freek@fwi.uva.nl (Freek Wiedijk) (02/24/90)
Suppose I have a crippled demo. Suppose that demo is widespread (present in sumex-aim.stanford.edu:info-mac/demo, posted to comp.binaries.mac, etc.) and contains notices like "give this program to all your friends". Suppose also that it does *not* contain any notices like "you should not modify this program in any way". Now, using TMON and Nosy, I find a patch that restores the program to its full glory. I can then do several things. What options are moral? What are legal? (i) I can proudly remove everything that has anything to do with the program from my disks (this *is* what I did :-)), and forget all about it... (ii) I can keep the program for my own use, but tell nobody about it. (iii) I can post to the world that it is *possible* to patch the demo, but *not* how to do it. (iv) I can post to the world, but *only* the patch. (v) I can post the patched program. (vi) I can blackmail the company that wrote the program... :-) The problem is that since these patches are so easy to find, the temptation to do such things is irresistible... :-) Now, the price question is: Which program am I refering to, and what is the patch? :-) Cheers, -- Freek "the Pistol Major" Wiedijk Path: uunet!fwi.uva.nl!freek #P:+/ = #+/P?*+/ = i<<*+/P?*+/ = +/i<<**P?*+/ = +/(i<<*P?)*+/ = +/+/(i<<*P?)**