[521]

The following is my simple opinion:


Simply put, IMHO, it's jealousy, greed, and the nature of competition. Every site/person/company wants to be the see-all, know-all authority on whatever they are doing, and takes offense when someone else questions their supremacy. It's just human nature to want to be "above the rest" or "number one".

And yes, wcked is exactly spot on - any person who is taking the work of another person/company, and is modding it, then claiming it as their own is technically a "hacker" producing a type of "warez". Even in this there are still those who have a sense of esteem - those would be the ones who actually give credit to the original author/owner where their "warez" evolved from.

Personally, I never had an issue myself with posting up another person's work, but I always give credit/thanks to the original owner if I do. Often on my other site, I am posting up schematics and mods and stuff that came from the internet, and when I do, I always try to post a referring link back to the creator/manufacturer/owner's site in return for posting their product, whatever it may be. I do not claim it is mine unless I have actually created it myself.

As far as the copyright/patent itself, even they are expected to expire at some time unless renewed, then the product becomes public domain. Consider for instance books that are originally printed and copyrighted by one publisher, then they quit publishing them. A number of years later, someone else gets ahold of a copy and posts it up or releases it through a new publisher. It's public domain to do so, at least as long as they cite that the work was written by the original author, or cite that it is an adaptation of a book/story/etc by the original author.

Is there something wrong with doing this? Personally I would say no - as the end result is that POSSIBLY the new modded version may appeal to someone who would otherwise have no interest in the original product. Overall result, the work has now been exposed to more and more people, and where the original author's work may have died out, it kinda receives a rebirth (albeit slightly reformed), and allows it to live on in its new form for many more years to come.


I guess what i'm trying to say in a loooong drawn out way, is that I totally agree with wcked on this one. As long as the person is giving some credit to the source, why should they really care that the release is warez or not?

I download warez all the time, and often end up purchasing the original product as a result of my experiences with the ware - be it good or bad.

In the end, it's a win-win situation all the way around for all involved parties.


So much for that... i'll be hushing up now and crawling back to my dark corner over there under the stairs.... LOL!

521.......................