Let me put it this way. IF, that is what Vas did it was wrong. That would be his crime but this is not really what is being argued even though we want to make it seem like it is.bob wrote:That's a biased question. Does that mean it is OK to steal ideas and sell them if they just allow you to catch up to the best program? OK to steal and sell if it gets you within 100 points of the best?Don wrote:Please tell me which ideas Vas stole and marketed that made his program far stronger than any other program?mhull wrote:I agree this is a valid distinction that Don didn't address.Milos wrote:No it's not iligal and no it's not unethical.Don wrote:I have to say one thing about reverse engineering of commercial products. I don't know if this is legal or illegal. But to me that is a minor consideration - it's clearly a violation of ethics.
Unethical is selling other ppl's ideas (and code). And not being able to see that is just sad.
Copying code is simply wrong, unless you attribute the source and abide by whatever license it falls under.
There is a great deal of dishonesty in this discussion because I seriously doubt most people REALLY cares if that happened or not. And even if it did happen, it's not why people are getting so excited.
If Vas only took ideas from Fruit and added a few hundred ELO to that and profited as a result, then I hate to break it to everyone but that is perfectly acceptable practical in the business world - unless there is a patent. In fact you (not you Bob, but those involved in this conversation) need to change your position on this because EVERY chess program in the world works this same exact way.