First of all, Thank you Xport for all your work. Secondly i would like to state that i have been sacrificing animals to my gods (Xport and Lantus) since day 1. Something i know Mr jones could verify for me from previous threads. The great thing about ones personal belief system is that its theirs. I think its great for everyone to have their own opinions, morals, ethics, and beliefs...As long as they are consistant and not hypocritical, because to me, that ruins the validity of their other opinions, beliefs, etc. Xport is a god to me because of what he offers me. He [xport] brought up a very valid analogy, "what if you were the mother of that child..." EXACTLY. Things are only important to the person that they are important to. That sounds exceedingly reduntant but its not. Xport is a god to me solely because of what he provides. Lets take coder "A" and coder "B" for example, lets say "B" has 50 times more coding experience and talent then "A"...Thats cool, but if "B" gives me a "built from scratch every piece of functionality imaginable" text editor, and "A" gives me a, hmmmm, lets say "PC engine CD/SCD" emulator, well who do you think i care about. Now this in no way is trying to say Xport has no skill, talent, or experience, we all know he is probably a very talented and experienced coder, in fact, there is no point in finishing that thought, all im saying is if im a landscaper, i cant mow MORE than the amount of lawn thats before me, and i would hope no one would assume that i COULDN'T mow a bigger lawn or didnt have a bigger mower. The bottom line to me is that its the content thats most important.
The problem i have with alot of people goes back to my first comment about hypocracy and inconsistancies. There seems to be this HONOR among thieves mentality by people. The ol its ok to rip a business off but not a person. The bottom line is people are fighting to protect credit for coders hard work when their hard work is usually intended to defeat not give credit to THOUSANDS of peoples hard work. Im not going to get in to the intended purpose and morality of a gpl, im just going to point out the hypocracy of trying so hard to defend it. Now im also going to preface this with; If you are of the mindset that stealing paper clips from your office is LESS wrong than stealing paper clips from your friends mom, you aren't going to understand, but you should. I dont claim to NOT have isos, roms, illegal binaries, or any other form of PIRATED software, but understand im sure most of you do as well, and because of that even if you only have 1 illegally owned rom, your screwing the people who contributed to the entire product cycle of that project out of credit. Dont think so?? Take me for example, i work in the game industry (nope im not a dev), i have actually worked on 3 different xbox and 2 pc titles. My job performance is completely judged on our sales figures for that individual title. Lets say there was no way to pirate games for xbox, then our figures would be 100% accurate of how many copies were shipped and sold. But thats not the case and there is no way to accurately judge how many people WOULD have bought the game. Same thing here, why are you fighting so hard for one mans credit, when i dont see you arguing with the original authors of the emulators that they should put in the credits everyone who was involved in the entire product cycle of the hardware they are emulating. Sound ridiculous? Without those people there would be no emu, there would be demand for that emu, or any fame for emulating it. Why are you fighting so hard to respect one man when your not fighting to respect THOUSANDS of men and woman that are being alienated by the application in the first place. WHY?? Because you dont care, it doesnt affect you right? Because you dont know Bill G. and hey, he has a ton of cash right?? Because you DO know pete or linus right?? Well guess what it does affect you, more than you think. You like that game on your xbox? Dont ever complain that there wasnt a sequel. You like that console?? Dont ever complain that it died overnight. There is a valid reason to fight for thousands of people who deserve credit (because it can and does affect you), and there is a reason to fight for your fellow dev mates who code apps and release them under the GPL, (because you know them) they both affect you, but yet you fight for honor of the latter, and claim that there should be zero tolerance for any form of non-compliance, or even after someone has complied. Why so biased? Because the REAL pro's got paid? Well i already addressed how they get screwed so thats not a valid reason. Why be so biased and of HIGH MORAL STANDARDS now??? The reason?? because its convienent, and it hits a little close to home, you even envision how upset you would be if it happened to you, if you got screwed, we are all getting screwed, i dont hear you bitching to people about the roms,isos, or xbox backups they have although that could affect you as well. Why should you right?? You dont own an XBOX nor do you plan on getting one, so it doesnt affect you. EXACTLY!! Ya know what?? Neither does an Xbox emulator whos author didnt INITIALLY comply to the GPL!!! Speak up and complain when it DOES happen to you, and be quiet until it does. Your not the super hero for all homebrew developers everywhere. Be consistant in your beliefs, ethics, and morals.
Edit:
I appologize for the length, cohesion, and probably general coherency of this post. I havent slept yet and its 8 am.
This was also not intended as a flame. I also appologize for posting this in this particular thread, This was an "XPORT explanation" thread, and i severely got off topic, if a moderator could please move this for me in to what they feel is a more appropriate thread it would be appreciated. Thanks, and Thanks again xport
