The problem are people like you that do not respect the choices of the authors.
Indeed I do not respect choices, I reserve my respect for _people_, and how much I respect people, depends on their choices. So, when people keep doing silly choices, I respect them less. Just because someone wrote some good code, does not make them good people, there are brilliant coders who are really terrible people and who do a lot of bad choices. I have little respect for them.
You're just sitting here saying "let's ignore what the authors want to say about it, let's just grab it".
What I am saying is that authors who care about their work, better come out and show it, and do it themselves and not by proxy of people they barely have any contact with.
Remember how copyright laws started? It was all about what is beneficial for _society_ in general. Same with patent laws. This original agenda has long since been hijacked by people with much sinister agendas.
Sorry, but that's ignorant, and it's not a policy that would help anyone for supporting the platform.
Nonsense. Opening up the platform is what can actually help people support it. The level of hypocrisy in Amiga community is staggering, how so called "piracy" is "ok" as long as it doesn't happen in the "open". Look at Cloanto, when you buy AmigaForever 2016 it comes with loads of cracked games and even "illegal" firmware for CSPPC for OS4.1SE to work. Look at Reaction aka ClassAct, now the official OS4 "toolkit"... how pleased are Caldi et al these days about how that "deal" went through? Who is screwing over who here??
Excuse me. Back then, the SDK was available for money. Surely there is support if you pay for it. Elbox was just cheap. Or why do you think that software authors need to work there arse off to "support manufacturers" that then sell hardware, but get nothing in return?
I was never in the P96 "club", I always used CGFx whenever possible, and it is in a much healthier state than P96. For example, the CGfx3 SDK is where such SDKs should be - on aminet.
Are you really that ignorant that you blame Tobias and Alex for not working for free?
I am blaming them for picking a really bad business model for developing such software, as in doing "bad choices" (see above).
How do you pay your bills, if I may be so frank to ask?
I work for a non-profit to bring Internet to higher education institutes in Norway, I am paid to design and implement solutions that enables and allows research and education to take place in ways and locations where it has not been possible before. Like in the Arctic areas for example. We pick open source over closed source whenever possible. We pay people to write open source, we even sometimes take "dead" open source projects and revive them.
And why does your employer pay you in first place?
Because I do a good job, matching their expectations. Coding, hacking, chewing gum and glue, so that students and researches can have working internet access wherever they go, in my country and beyond.
Most importantly - I do work that actually matters to my society, and no strings attached, hence society pays me.
Couldn't you just work for free?
I do that too, I got more projects than I have time for, doing stuff for free. It happens that I volunteer for work that I find satisfying.
And your conclusion is "let's just not pay the authors".
My conclusion is that since the authors chose to not care, why should anyone else.
Now, allow me to ask: Why is that exactly helpful? If software is worthless for you, why should anyone sit down and write it? Or, leave alone, support people like you that are ignorant about the work of others?
Software that is locked away and not maintained _is_ worthless. For example, how much worth is the P96 SDK right now? How useful is it _right this moment_? Tell me, so I can pay for it in hard currency, and liberate it.
