Re: Plagiary problem

[Mousheng Xu <xu@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:35 PM 4/26/99 -0400, Elmer Elevator wrote: 
>>>>
> During the last round of the plagiarism controversy, one wag thoughtlessly asked a question something like this: 
>
> How can a filched program play better Go than the program from which it is filched? 
>
> ... and I don't recall anyone satisfactorily answering that. 
<<<<
Hi,


Easy, man.
1) Chinese invented gun power for hundreds if not thousands of years before the technique was broadcast to the Europe, but failed to use it to produce guns. 2 heads are better than 1. You can always improve something if you add some merit to it. If I had to invent a 386 PC from the very beginning, it would be very hard; if I start from a 286, I will have a better chance. 
2) By chance. Given P(win) = 1/2, the probablity you win a game is 1/2, two consective games is 25%


>>>>
> If a plagiarist just repackages stolen code, s/he is competing against programs s/he can't possibly defeat, but at best only tie ... and in the six months or longer since the theft, the programmer from whom s/he stole the code will certainly have improved his/her code sufficiently to defeat the stolen stale version. 
<<<<
Plagiarism has nothing to do with HOW you use it, it only cares IF you use it. If one steals money from the bank, he is a thief. It does not matter if he uses the money for good or bad purposes or with good or bad consequences.

>>>>

> If a plagiarist steals effective code and changes it sufficiently so that it's a consistent winner in the next competitions -- well, then, shame on him/her for the initial theft, but
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I guess there is no way for people to tell if you really change the code (although it's still sort of plagiarism), but that is not the case in this case. :)
> Maybe not a lot of new, novel, original, creative work ... but the museums are filled with lots of things that were almost telephones or almost airplanes. We call each other on the one Bell finally improved on, and fly around the world on the one the Wright Brothers invented. 
<<<<
You can use any knowledge published or willingly released from the knowledge discoverer. But you cannot just utilize the result of an intelligent process without the discoverer's implicit or explicit admission. And that is called "copy right".

>>>>

Don't take anything I am writing personal. It's just for discussion.

Thanks.

-- Mousheng