Updated: Never — Philip's Blog

Interesting experience at work this afternoon. I needed to reinvent a wheel (don't ask) and the quickest and easiest way to do it was using some "shareware" utility. Ordinarily, I am not a great fan of "shareware". I prefer my software to be free (as in freedom).

I didn't feel like reinventing a wheel to reinvent the wheel though, so I gave this thing a try. In the "nag" box, it mentioned that the software was under the GPL, and that I should feel free to download the sources...

...which I did...

The sources did not include a Makefile - clever - but they did include the algorithm for checking "registration keys". I suppose the 'most honest' thing to do, would have been to figure out the dependencies, write a Makefile, and build the thing without the key-checking logic. It seemed quicker to write a quick program to generate me a key, however. Which I did.

But now I don't know what to do to cleanse my conscience:

• Should I figure out dependencies and write a Makefile to build the sources with the key-checking logic removed?
• Should I send that patch to the author, licensed under the GPL?
• Should I publish my key generator under the GPL?

Funny situation. Tips on how to proceed ethically are welcome in my mailbox.

[Note: for what it's worth, the tool converted data in an Open, Standard format into a different mostly-open, definitely not Standard format of lower quality - not very interesting unless you have to work under manglement with a warped perception of reality and priorities]