Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 08:52:32 03/26/99
Go up one level in this thread
On March 25, 1999 at 23:16:18, David Dawson wrote:
>I'm missing something here..
>
> If some jerk wants to distribute modified binaries of crafty 16.6, what's
>going to prevent him from changing the version number and continuing his assault
>on future versions of crafty? After all, he's got the source already...
Crafty is an incredibly complicated machine. I have been studying it for over a
year and I don't fully understand it yet. I have been programming in C for 15
years and even taught C in college. Believe me, there is no way some ameteur is
going to keep pace with Dr. Hyatt.
> Seems to me the only people this is hurting are those who don't yet know
>about crafty... Plus, with the number of people requesting passwords to the ftp
>site, how can they be monitored? If just one person posts the source, or emails
>it to a few others.. hasn't all been lost?
There is clearly trajedy here. The trajedy is spawned by something strange.
When someone does a good turn, sometimes things unexpected happen.
Joe: "Hey, can I borrow your hammer?"
Sam: "Sure, use it as long as you like."
{15 minutes later}
Joe: "Here's your hammer back."
Sam: "Why is there blood all over it!?"
Joe: "I used it to kill a bunch of little kids I don't like."
What am I talking about?
Well, people have grabbed the Crafty binary, made a few tweaks, and then slapped
their name on it. Then they go and tromp on others in contests who have slaved
for years on their programs. People have taken the source code and twisted
things to create a foul, insulting piece of junk.
It's sort of like discovering to split the atom. Wow! Look at this! We can
heat a million homes with a pound of fuel! We can cure cancer! We can
sterilize surgical instruments or foodstuffs 100% effectively!
{Meanwhile Fred sneaks out the back with visions of skulls bouncing down the
street, and flames 40,000 feet high}
The problem with anything powerful is that invariably someone abuses that power
to create damage.
Dr. Hyatt still wants to teach and still wants to share. But I think he wants
to put a cork in the bottle to keep the Genie from the hands of "Jafar."
I don't know if it can be done. I hope that it can. Actually, I think part of
the problem is that most people really don't understand what copyright means.
They imagine if you can see the source code you can do anything you want with
it. That is not true, and perhaps when this becomes understood it will
alleviate a large portion of the problem.
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