[GuruXL]

Originally Posted by Miratos

From an opposing view, and I realize I don't have a post count, the ability to code/post hacks or anything else to garner respect, but...

People use others original work in a variety of situations in the real world, updating it and give proper credit to the original creator of the works. There don't seem to be any ethics issues there. I fail to see how this is any different.

As long as no profit is being made off of it, the original creator has no intention to update the code or is unable to be contacted and proper credit is being given in the update, how and why would it be considered unethical?

And saying, write your own code from scratch is not an acceptable answer. Not everyone is capable of coding. In my opinion, that is a very narrow minded and elitest attitude.

I'm not trying to be a troll...but undestand there are features out there that people need and not everyone is blessed with the ability to program and so are at the mercy of those who can. These people deserve consideration as much as the ones who can take that old program and update it for their boards.

If the original author comes back from the nether and gets offended, take down the updated code and let the updater and original author work out terms.

Anyway, thats my opinion.

I feel I have to agree with Miratos, not everyone is able to learn how to become a programmer, be it because of a learning disability or just a general lack of grasping the principles and methods behind coding.

However, I can see what you mean regarding copyright. Again I agree with Miratos because, I believe copyright law needs to be re-written, for starters its too strict, the slightest similarity to something else is considered copyright infringement and plagerism. Plagerism is seriously strict it requires you to come up with something original and that is becoming more and more difficult as plagerism cases increase. The ability to come up with something original is hard because we have so many works that have already been published or written. Plagerism is defined as:

take without referencing from someone else's writing or speech; of intellectual property

this is tricky still because of all the versions of plagerism.

All of the following are considered plagiarism:

- turning in someone else's work as your own
- Changing the words of an original source is not sufficient to prevent plagiarism. If you have retained the essential idea of an original source, and have not cited it, then no matter how drastically you may have altered its context or presentation, you have still plagiarized.
- copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
- failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
- giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
- changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
- copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on "fair use" rules)

Kinda of seriously limits a person who is trying to come up with something "original", Regardless of copyright law.