Infinite Monkeys and other BLs

[Mike R]

> Except when the software is provided AS IS and AS AVAILABLE (as is the
> case with all free software and under any GPL).
>
> You assume all responsibility.  Call it not nice what they did, but thats
> it.  Morality and legality are two different issues.  It doesnt rise to
> the level of legality no matter how you slice it.

Well.....actually, I must disagree, and since I started this thread.....  :\

Look, I really appreciate everyone who has done free BLs and Julian
certainly for MailScanner - I was so impressed with it I did convince my
employer to make a donation to him.

My original point would be that if it were so important to IM that they felt
they had to eventually provide false information to everyone, why didn't
they just egg Julian into changing the MS releases beforehand?  There were
NINE releases of MS between IM shutting off and the final commenting out of
it in MS.  I caught the seventh version, unfortunately.

And I mean that criticism in a light way - I know if you are doing stuff for
free that you can't keep track of every little detail with every release
necessarily.  I'm not sure how big a deal IM shutting down overall was, but
they were only one of four listed by default, and one of the two listed in
mailscanner.conf by default.

As for announcements about things and being a sysadmin: some people on this
list are not full-time sysadmins - I wear about 10 different hats at my
place of employment (small biz), and while I try and keep up, I'm bound to
miss something once in awhile.  I know that's no one else's fault, but it
does give out some sort of explanation as why I would have missed that.

Last, but not least, I do have to wonder about IM being 'not nice'.  To use
the analogy of the highway and bridge: what they did is equal to someone
owning a private road and bridge, and when that bridge is out, putting up
signs to direct people away.  However, some people aren't paying attention,
and come down to the bridge anyway (and keep getting turned away).  What
they did was like taking down all of the signs and blocks simply because
they were irritated people were still coming down the road (therefore
sending new users of the road off the bridge that is out).

I guess I would say that if you are going to do something for free for the
public, you do have a certain responsibility for it directly related to how
many people it effects and how badly it affects them.  Particularly if you
are going to comment that "The MONKEYS.COM anti-spam zones will remain
accessible, but content free for an absolute minimum of 6 months, and even
after that time, ample prior notice will be provided, both here and
elsewhere, regarding any changes."

-Mike