Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:03 am

Well, clearly someone who wrote code and never received any compensation has a legal issue, whether it's not receiving contractually-stipulated money or people breaking the terms of use of that code. If a company's doing something illegal in that way, that's obviously a bad thing.

But I don't think it's fair to tar all those companies with the same brush. The guy who wrote IRE's backend system, for example, was rewarded (quite handsomely, I'd imagine) with a share of the company. I've talked to coders who're in a similar situation and have profit-sharing agreements. If the original author of whatever wants to be recompensed, they need to demand it from people who want to use their work, and protect the work they do from people who use it without permission.

And as for MUDs being hobbies - when these people chose to quit their jobs and then to remortgage their houses and sell their cars to rent office space and buy servers and pay coders, it stopped being a hobby for them. I have nothing but respect for someone who decides to take that step and succeeds doing it.

I really don't understand why people begrudge so much MUDs that charge, whether monthly or with a different model. They're just trying to make some money, and clearly if they succeed, there was money to be made. It's not as if they force you to play their games and then force you to give them money when you do. If they're doing something illegal, then that's a different matter - but most don't. If you disagree with the idea of paying $480 for a sword, the solution is simply not to, just like I decline to pay $500 for a pair of jeans but I don't have a problem the people who make them or who do choose to buy them.

Magician Joined: 17 Apr 2005 Posts: 496