Update a hack and distribute it without permission ?

[grog6]

Hi,

I've seen that some of my hacks (under Vbdev username) were modified and updated to work for vb 3.5 without my permission and the hacker hasn't asked yet to know if I want of it !

Is he right having done this ? Is it allowed ?

I wanted to update this hack by myself, what do I do ? I don't ?

Thanks for replies (and sorry for my english :nervous: )

[Boofo]

Have you tried PM'ing them to find out why you were never contacted? I would start there and see what happens and we can go from there.

[peterska2]

I shouldn't think that it is allowed to port a hack without permission of the original author.

I don't know what can be done about it though. If the staff remove it from the site then there are still going to be people using it on their sites.

[Boofo]

It is NOT allowed and if we find out that is has happened, it will be dealt with accordingly.

[grog6]

Boofo, the problem is that these (this ?! I'm only sure for one of my hack ) hacks were created by me (grog6) but posted with the username Vbdev (when we had the site vbulletindev.net

[Boofo]

It doesn't make a difference. If it is your hack and it was knowingly converted without your permission, then it is wrong.

PM me with the details and I will check it out.

[Oblivion Knight]

Depends really if the same code has just been rewritten and updated, or if the idea has simply come around again and the code is completely different. It could be a genuine mistake, and the coder simply didn't know that you had written something similar for vBulletin 3.0.x.

Personally, I generally don't believe in coders owning an idea. They do however own the code written for that idea.. However, credit should still be given where it is due.

[Zachery]

Have to agree with andy, to a certain extent.

Are you 1000% positive that they really took your work and ported it? or did they write new code, to accompish the same goal and found that you had also made a hack.

[Quillz]

It seems more likely a new hack was created that fulfills the older hack's purpose.

[Chris M]

While I agree with the idea of a coder not owning an idea, I think that the phrase "ignorance is not an excuse" should be effective...

People who code modifications are obviously of a technical skill allowing them to use the tremendously powerful yet forgotten forum feature: THE ABILITY TO SEARCH

Anyone who has the time to code something surely has the time to make a common courtesy to search a few key phrases about their proposed/coded idea and see if a hack exists for vB2 or vB3 before coding/releasing it for vB3.5...

If the code is generally different or the hacker didn't know, up until this point it has been taken as "fair enough they didn't know"...

As a matter of common courtesy to the original hack author they should at least inform them they have released such a hack and that they seek endorsement for re-releasing/coding the modification for the latest version...

Chris