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From: koonce@brahms.berkeley.edu (tim koonce)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os9,comp.sys.m6809
Subject: Re: the 'D' program
Summary: Some suggestions
Message-ID: <17173@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 18 Nov 88 01:35:38 GMT
References: <948@umbio.MIAMI.EDU>
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Reply-To: koonce@brahms.berkeley.edu (tim koonce)
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In article <948@umbio.MIAMI.EDU> dnelson@umbio.MIAMI.EDU (Dru Nelson) writes:
>I have a friend whose name is Barry Nelson (no relation) and he writes
>many nice programs for the coco's os9.  He makes many of them PD or
>doesn't release them but they appear in some commercial programs.
>
>Just seeing that recognition is deserved.  Thank you.
>
It's sad that such a thing could happen.  A few suggestions, though:
1) Include careful documentation with programs released which features
   the name of the author.
2) Include the author's name, etc, as a constant string in the object.
   (A simple 'fcc "Author: Barry Nelson, <date>"' will do in Assembly.)
3) Include author's name in a usage message available through a -? option.
4) Be obnoxious and include the author's name in the output of the program.
   (If you're paranoid, you could even encrypt the string!)
5) Copyright and release as freeware, rather than PD.  Note that copyrighting
   simply means putting 'Copyright <name> <year>' in a visible place
   (such as usage summary, documentation, in the object).
6) Put together groups of these utilities and market them!  Several companies
   are happy to market groups of small utilities.  If he's not interested in
   making money, market them for some token fee, like $10 for 10 utilities.

These suggestions might help to insure that people become more aware of who
actually writes the utilities.  As a general rule, you want to include your
name, etc, with the program somewhere, or you'll never get the recognition
you deserve.

One warning:  I hope that you have good grounds for the accusation that someone
is marketing code that your friend wrote.  That's a pretty serious accusation.
That utilities have the same name is not enough to mean they are the same.

						- Tim Koonce