DMZ 1.7.1 (DataMapper OverZealous Edition)

[eluser]OverZealous[/eluser]
Code Theft

I feel the need to write this. I've been contacted by several individuals—in just the last few weeks—who have felt the need to share their pride in copying source code from proprietary and non-free applications.

This is an incredibly misinformed view of the world. Rationalizing this by saying you are just learning, or something similar, does not take away from the fact that:

1) It is completely unnecessary. There is a huge wealth of legally free software, with 100% visible source code to look at.

2) It damages the entire software industry. I assume that the majority of people who use CodeIgniter are in the software industry. When you take from someone else's hard work, and redistribute it against their will, you are stealing from that person or company.

3) You don't learn by doing things right the first time. You learn by making mistakes. This is the point of going to class, of practicing, of any skilled trade. I don't know how to write code because I saw it written correctly once before—I know how to write code correctly because I've written a lot of messed up crap that I had to rewrite many times.

4) The saddest thing is when you do this, and then brag about it to a person who writes software for a living, that's like going to an independent film director and bragging about how you download all your favorite movies from bittorrent. That's really nice. Why don't you spit in their face, too?

Please, if you are trying to learn something, look at the open-source community. Don't steal closed-source code. Just because you can decrypt PHP and JavaScript, doesn't mean you should. And don't steal FOSS code either! Attribute it, follow the licenses as provided, and be respectful of other software developers.

As this isn't the correct forum to discuss this, if you have a response to this message, we can continue the discussion here.