You can't steal something which is free. This is what you should expect if you give away stuff for free to anybody who happens on it. To me it seems that FOSS people take perverse pleasure in these kind of things.

It's easy to prepare for what is ahead: Get yourself out of the filthy FOSS swamp and start charging a fair price for your work from real customers. That is something everybody benefits from and it is also dignified for everybody involved.

▲

pfcd 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

"FOSS" doesn't mean that you cannot monetize your program.

It's just that people have taken different routes historically.

▲

carlosjobim 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Sell the program or give it away for free, to me both is fine. But to release the source code for free, then complain that other people take it and sell it - that's ridiculous.

If I give away my secret sauce recipe, I have no right to complain if somebody puts it in a bottle and sells it. Either you keep it to yourself or you don't.

▲

derektank 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Either you keep it to yourself or you don't.

Governments have presented us with a third option, intellectual property, which allows a creator to release their intellectual contributions publicly while preventing someone else from reproducing it. Violating the terms of an open source license are generally considered intellectual property violations and allow the creator to seek damages.

▲

carlosjobim an hour ago | parent [-]

Good luck with that. If you throw your wallet onto a busy street corner, then by the law nobody is allowed to take it either. But cops will tell you that they have more important things to take care of than victims who take every measurable action at hand to make themselves victims.

	▲	bluefirebrand 9 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		There are a lot of things that are immoral (or just rude) to do but not explicitly illegal Personally I would prefer to live in a society filled with people who are better than thinking "well there's no law against it so it's 100% fine"

▲

InsideOutSanta 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Every book contains all of its content. It's "open source" by necessity. Are you saying that if you buy a book, you can do with the contents of the book whatever you want?

▲

carlosjobim an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Computer code is not comparable to a book. A better comparison would be a blueprint or a recipe. If Coca-Cola publishes their recipe wide and far for anybody to read, would you rage together with them when another beverage company starts selling drinks together with them?

	▲	zelphirkalt an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Computer code is also not comparable with a wallet thrown onto a busy street corner. Can you decide, whether you are OK with unfit comparisons or not, instead of trying to have it both ways?

▲

an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

▲

ChrisMarshallNY an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> the filthy FOSS swamp

Now, be nice. This isn't Reddit, and I don't think the HN mods are really into "engagement"*

I tend to release a lot of stuff MIT. I don't give a shit, if anyone takes it and gets rich (which I seriously doubt will happen). It's just that I don't want people coming after me, if they misuse it.

If, however, someone rereleases my stuff with a "gift," and makes it appear that I was behind it, then that's a Bozo no-no. I think that kind of thing is going on at GitHub, right now.

*Mud-wrestling in a cesspool

▲

Rekindle8090 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]