Don't Be Evil Means Don't Be Evil | Hacker News Reader

Don't Be Evil Means Don't Be Evil

linuxjournal.com

12 pointsedw5195 comments

'Tap the person on the shoulder and say "Hey, do you know you really shouldn't be distributing those?" Take ten minutes to figure out that leading with lawyers is both overkill and one of the worst sins you can commit in this community.'

This makes no sense to me. If Google told me, "Stop distributing our closed source applications" then I wouldn't care whether I was told by an engineer or a lawyer. And I certainly don't see why using a lawyer to do this would be "one of the worst sins you can commit" in the open source community.

With that being said, this article raises good points about the closed-ness of the Android software dev kits, their use of NDAs, and how their handling of Android development has been less open than Google likes to claim.

To me, a C&D implies bad intentions on the part of the recipient. I would much rather receive an informal request before any legal action is presented against me.

So evil, in this case, is not calling someone before sending them a C&D letter?

If their motto was "Don't be Annoying" I could understand the outrage... and yes, Google probably made a mistake by not calling the guy first.

But it seems like a simple corporate communications mistake... and last I checked mistakes, especially the first time they occur, aren't evil.

I hate their stupid motto. In order for it to have meaning they have to define evil, what religious / ethical framework are they using? stupid stupid motto, stupid stupid journalists

As a guiding principle, it's concise, clear and light-hearted. It exists moreso to cause employees to pause and consider whether their actions violate this principle.

An ethics document would obviously be more detailed, but those three simple words allow for a quick initial vetting of a decision.

I think it's less a question of ethics in general, and more a question of not playing by the rules of the community in which they're trying to participate.

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