[NTLK] Hacked WiFi driver

Dear all,

I would like to comment on the situation of the hacked WiFi driver.
I'm not surprised that this driver was hacked, the software
protection was probably very easy to circumvent considering the
difficulties Hiroshi had to develop the NewtonScript interface.

Nevertheless, I'm not very happy with the idea that such a hack
exists and is available. Hiroshi developed the driver, he owns the
intellectual property of his work and he can decide any time to stop
selling licenses to use it. Full stop. We can try to convince him to
do otherwise, several members did and likewise, I sent him e-mails
several times including in my pathetic Japanese. But I respect his
choice of not answering these requests.

The notion of abandonware is just a way to justify theft. If you
don't respect intellectual property, it will discourage developers.
Even if some developers do not have the time to meet the expectations
of users (I know that's my case at the moment), or if they decide to
stop a product, I believe the community should respect their work and
their decisions instead of trying to teach them what they should do.

If the community as a whole wants a WiFi driver, then shall they find
someone to develop it. I already mentioned that I don't think it's
the way out (please watch for the Worldwide Newton Conference 2007
announcements), but this is much more reasonable than hacking
existing software. There are plenty of competent programmers who
could be convinced to develop such a driver for the Newton. And it's
not a very difficult task. And the community could define what they
want from the driver (for example the features that are missing in
Hiroshi's driver).

FYI, back in 2000, at least two people were working on a WiFi driver:
Hiroshi Noguchi and Gopi Flaherty (whom I can't find a valid e-mail
address for). It might be worth it contacting Gopi.

Regards,

Paul

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