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State Trooper Fights For His Source Code
BarneyRabble writes to tell us that a Wisconsin State Trooper is fighting to maintain control of the source code for a program he wrote that helps officers write traffic tickets electronically. Praised by the state just 18 months ago, Trooper David Meredith is now suing the head of patrol claiming that the state is trying to illegally seize the source that he had developed on his own time. From the article: "Meredith, of Oconto Falls, defied an order from his bosses to relinquish the source code - the heart of the program - in October and instead deposited it with Dane County Circuit Judge David T. Flanagan, pending a ruling on who should control it. The case centers on how the software was developed. Department of Transportation attorney Mike Kernats said the State Patrol - a division of DOT - provided Meredith with a computer to write the software and gave him time off patrol duties so he could do the work. But Meredith said in court filings that he spent hundreds of hours off duty working on it, developing it almost entirely on his own time. He noted that he never signed a software licensing agreement."
"I never understand the view that good enforcement of a law is a bad thing. Either the law is just, in which case enforcement can not be bad, or the law is unjust, in which case good enforcement will highlight this to a significant proportion of the electorate, ensuring that it is fixed sooner." I don't think that could be further from the truth. MANY stupid laws are enforced simply because they're finanicially beneficial to the department. I think you'd agree that tickets have been around for a long time, but they're still enforced. Do you really think they're just? Two people roll a stop sign, who do you think is more likely to receive a ticket... a.) A black guy in a rusty old buick at 1:30 a.m. b.) A white guy in a business suit, driving a BMW at 3:00 p.m? Same crime, but I'm willing to bet one is WAY more likely to be pulled over. Same crime 2 different likely outcomes -> NOT just.