No one here will litigate over 20 lines of code, and nor will BFG - it would be pointless. Also even if they did read this stuff, they wouldn't be worried about it as they look at the bigger picture and I'm a valuable employee. I've done my best to do the right thing legally in this situation (remember I have only sold my code not the PD/forum code), so there's really nothing to worry about as I've explained about 50 times now.
Thanks for your response, Jake. And as per your wishes, I won't contribute anything else to this topic after this post. You must admit though, this is an interesting debate. Taking your specific situation out of the picture, it's an interesting illustration of how very different, yet valid interpretations can be made over a "business ethical" situation. Believe it or not, I have personally been in a situation very similar to yours... which is why I voiced concern to begin with.
I do want to make a couple final points though.. Not to get the final word in, but more to clarify some things which I might not have effectively communicated. As stated, I won't respond here anymore to let the subject die. So if anyone wants one from me, they'll have to contact me privately.
We are employed in a very rough economic climate right now. I lost 2 "valuable employees" from my team a couple days ago. So I want to assure you that what I said was in your best interests, and not to make you feel bad or stir the ashes. As my boss put it the other day... "don't dangle even your little toe in the water if the shark is making passes by the dock." I'd hate for some employer to take any opportunity to use a situation (no matter how minor) to paint a target on ANYONE's back. While many want to believe employers have good intentions and are always looking out for their employees (or those who licensed a framework their employee sold to them), when it comes to the survival of the fittest, its best to take off the rose colored glasses and know they will do whatever it takes to keep the company alive. Even if that includes making decisions they wouldn't normally "ethically" make during better economic times.
I personally wasn't looking for a "defense" from you, but to simply share a different point of view. First rule by Dale Carnegie states that criticism is pointless for everyone because nobody will ever act without justification already in their head. Right OR wrong. Which is always subjective anyway.
Some people have been saying that the PD code is so common that to re-write it is nearly impossible because you might come up with the exact same code! I'd totally agree with that. The bit about laughing at opening the source though.... Considering your framework has solutions for common elements in a lot of games, its probably safe to say that others out there might follow the same patterns you came up with having never seen a line of your code (same as the PD argument). But since we all know you here, it wouldn't be difficult to prove in court that maybe this non-licensee of yours saw your code and was now violating BFG's IP when s/he in fact, really didn't (matters like copyright law are not ruled beyond a shadow of a doubt... at least here in the U.S.) I realize that this is probably a very unlikely scenario as the money at stake for an average casual game is pretty small. But it should be acknowledged.
As I have mentioned, I wasn't victimized by any of this, really. It just hit a little close to home. If anything, maybe it will make a good blog entry for someone somewhere. :)
Hope that cleared a couple things up, and show that I wasn't trying to be one of those negative/non-supportive people you were talking about.