At some level, you have to love zed. He gives and gives to the world, and the world just craps on him.
Of course, I have a feeling that his personal brand isn't going to be helped by this exchange.
Of course, I have a feeling that his personal brand isn't going to be helped by this exchange.
I like people with principles.
... which, come to think of it, is one of the reasons I hate the phrase "personal brand."
Zed has given immense amounts of code and work to the web community as a whole. It would be characteristically unlike Zed to not defend his work from what he views (and many others, I assume, including myself) as a savaging of his work.
So if you view it from that perspective? This is just par for the course with Zed. I, for one, appreciate someone who is so passionate about their work that they go to such lengths to defend it.
(Edited: Forgot me some commas.)
The ironic thing is that Zed's letter is similar to Bill Gates's letter to hobbyists 30 years, yet Bill has been historically flamed by the hacker community (requiring me to pay for software, is a larger crime than me stealing it). I wonder if identity politics play a larger role than ethical admiration.
I just find people to make such pronouncements to be over the top and people I generally would not associate with. And unfortunately there are people like that. It just felt like Zed trended that direction, IMO. And clearly it appears that many in HN think its perfectly acceptable.
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