To preface, I didn't contribute anything to the framework (which might very well make my opinion very invalid), nor did I ever have any intention of purchasing it or using it. So what I say here isn't sour grapes because I actually think Jake is one of the cooler cats on here.
That said, I can certainly understand why some people might be upset about this.
One other alternative would have been to release the framework into an open-source community project.
It would put you in a much less litigious position, and BFG/the community at large could use it without charge or worry of copyright infringement if it carried a BSD-type license.
In an open-source project you could have announced your intentions here and anyone who contributed code that felt it shouldn't be in your project would have had the ability to voice that opinion and give you the opportunity to re-write it yourself or work something out.
I don't think the issue is so much that you sold it and that you might have profitted from it in an unethical way. But that the outcome of the sale has essentially fought the spirit of collaboration from the forum that made parts of your framework possible to begin with by locking it away.
Similarly, if Mark were to sell BlitzMax to, say, PopCap under the same arrangement, it would basically leave your Blitz development at BFG dead in the water. Wouldn't you feel a little betrayed there considering the contributions you've made?
Now the argument that you produced 90% of the code has some weight. How much it weighs has a lot to do with how dependent it is on the 10% you didn't write. Again, I'm not a licensee of yours, so I wouldn't know.
But what's done is done. I think you're one of the more pleasant and intelligent contributors in this community, Jake. And even though I don't personally agree with the way you handled this, I really don't believe you have a single malicious bone in your body. I just fear that actions like this might make people think twice about collaborating with you in the future. And that's a real shame considering what you've proven you can do.
Just curious... does anyone at BFG other than yourself look at the forum posts here? Seems odd that they wouldn't have investigated it a bit further, and it might put your employable character in danger if they catch even a slight whiff that you put code in there that wasn't yours (even if it was a completely innocent mistake, misunderstanding or blatantly wrong). At any rate, I'd be prepared for damage control in light of that possibility.
That said, I can certainly understand why some people might be upset about this.
One other alternative would have been to release the framework into an open-source community project.
It would put you in a much less litigious position, and BFG/the community at large could use it without charge or worry of copyright infringement if it carried a BSD-type license.
In an open-source project you could have announced your intentions here and anyone who contributed code that felt it shouldn't be in your project would have had the ability to voice that opinion and give you the opportunity to re-write it yourself or work something out.
I don't think the issue is so much that you sold it and that you might have profitted from it in an unethical way. But that the outcome of the sale has essentially fought the spirit of collaboration from the forum that made parts of your framework possible to begin with by locking it away.
Similarly, if Mark were to sell BlitzMax to, say, PopCap under the same arrangement, it would basically leave your Blitz development at BFG dead in the water. Wouldn't you feel a little betrayed there considering the contributions you've made?
Now the argument that you produced 90% of the code has some weight. How much it weighs has a lot to do with how dependent it is on the 10% you didn't write. Again, I'm not a licensee of yours, so I wouldn't know.
But what's done is done. I think you're one of the more pleasant and intelligent contributors in this community, Jake. And even though I don't personally agree with the way you handled this, I really don't believe you have a single malicious bone in your body. I just fear that actions like this might make people think twice about collaborating with you in the future. And that's a real shame considering what you've proven you can do.
Just curious... does anyone at BFG other than yourself look at the forum posts here? Seems odd that they wouldn't have investigated it a bit further, and it might put your employable character in danger if they catch even a slight whiff that you put code in there that wasn't yours (even if it was a completely innocent mistake, misunderstanding or blatantly wrong). At any rate, I'd be prepared for damage control in light of that possibility.