[rzeznikj at stout]

So they did an unethical act by using other peoples' code and not giving anything back. If they would have posted their source as free--even in an unusable form, that would have been enough to settle the argument.

Much of their customer base wouldn't have been torqued off, and they could still sell their product. And I probably would have bought a copy.

The BSD license states that you can use licensed code in proprietary software. However, there is an implicit moral expectation that if you use code given to you for free, that you a.) at least give some credit to the provider, and that b.) give back something to the community.

And, if you want to talk about people who steal code, your buddies over at Micro$oft are the biggest offenders--and what they do is often outright illegal under state and federal laws--not just disregarding OSS licensing.

Finally, I'm not saying it was prohibited, just that what the developers did was an unethical act.

[Golden Eagle]

If they would have posted their source as free--even in an unusable form, that would have been enough to settle the argument.

What argument,you said it was freely given away to others via the BSD license. Legally, these freeloaders didn't have a leg to stand on, and were actually hypocrytes for giving the code away to begin with.

if you want to talk about people who steal code, your buddies over at Micro$oft are the biggest offenders

Now you're backpeddling so hard your skateboard came out from under you. Steal code? Why would you care, since you want all code to be free, anyway?

I'm not saying it was prohibited, just that what the developers did was an unethical act.

We got it, don't take from "the community", unless you commit yourself to it for life.