On the Ethics of a Code Split?

McWizard asks: "We've recently had a code split at a project I'm leading. (No name given, as this is a question, not an advertisement campaign). While both projects have done some major design decisions in opposing directions, we've been keeping a close eye on the changelog of the spinoff for small changes that could be used. So, whenever we've found an interesting piece of code (mostly GUI stuff, nothing longer than 20 lines of code), we transferred it to our project and gave credit to the spinoff team in the changelog. What does Slashdot say on that matter? Is this unethical or are such things fair game?" "Yesterday, I was contacted by the leader of the spinoff project who told me that he's quiet angry at us for doing that and that it's considered unethical and rude to copy code from the spinoff. As both projects are under the GPL, we have an opposing opinion on that matter and we've more than once invited him to copy code from our project. Nevertheless he's thinking about obfuscating his changelog and only open the source as packages when he's doing a release, which is, as he says, his right under the GPL."

Comments

Megamek?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyway... if he doesn't want people using his code under the license he chose, he shouldn't have licensed it that way. It's like people on the web that don't want you to link to them.

addendum:The only problem is that he's upset.

[Stephen Samuel]

Just about any half-decent defensive driving course will tell you that being legally (and even morally) in the right won't do you a rat's tail worth of good if you end up getting run over by a truck.