I was actually thinking about making a case for allowing unprotectors for personal and educational use, but that's another topic I have to open at some point in the future. >_>
Now is the time for this discussion!
Just as side note, perhaps 80% of my use of OSMap is to fix corrupted maps, 10% fixing up old broken maps, and 10% taking a gander at someone else's map. I'd personally like to see the unprotector ban lifted on SEN, just so that we can have a better dialogue on map protection.
I support your claim. We shouldn't prevent people from knowing about unprotectors (which are useful educational tools) just because there are a very small minority of people who are not responsible enough to not steal maps or whatever.
I was actually thinking about making a case for allowing unprotectors for personal and educational use
If the mapmaker wanted their map used for personal and educational purposes, they wouldn't have protected it.
I'd personally argue that one shouldn't feel as if it was a 100% legitimate thing to do to protect one's map.
Open Source results in a greater good for the community: an unprotected map can be improved by others. If someone unprotects it and changes the credits, the thing will fail because:
- He will probably not be able to spread the map as much as an already popular map
- If the maker is active in the community, he will see it and will most probably talk about it, resulting in social exclusion of the thief, which is good for the community
- If the maker is inactive in the community, he probably do not care about that community anymore, and he only wants his project to stay untouched because he feels legitimate to take such an action, while this actually hurts the community because a patch could introduce a bug, or there could be some balancing stuff to be done
- Fans of a popular map usually know their creator well if that creator actually wanted to be known for such project (credits everywhere): they will probably see that the new version is a scam and will take action against it
People shouldn't feel legitimate about preventing others from creating new versions of one's map.
But hey, I do not thing that intellectual property should exist. And the only reason I can think of at the moment that lets someone justify preventing others from modifying their work is by arguing that it's a piece of art.
We are hurting the whole community due to a few map-maker's irrational paranoia about their work being stolen.
None.