A few days ago, I sent out the following email to a few people I know. I'm going to reproduce it here, not quite verbatum, but close enough so that you get the idea:

Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 09:31:41 -0600
From: Ben Kinder <bitscape@festing.org>
To: [recipients undisclosed]
Subject: Moral delemma
User-Agent: Mutt/1.0.1i

I'm sending this because I seek solidarity, advise, and perhaps just a little old fashioned moral support. So I'll get right to the point.

On Friday, the company I work for announced to some employees its intent to begin generating revenue using a method I consider reprehensible -- sickening, in fact. Namely, we're going to start trying to get software patents. (Although the words "sue other people who use 'our' ideas" were not explicitly used, a little reading between the lines, and a possible future scenario similar to the Amazon.com fiasco doesn't seem like that much of a stretch.)

While trying to get at least a little work done Friday afternoon, I couldn't help but spend a lot of time considering just how long I want to keep working there. How can one be a part of an organization which chooses to participate in a program of government-assisted extortion, while still keeping some shred of self-respect? How would I live with myself if an idea I helped create became some lawyer's excuse to bully my geek brethren (or sist'ren) out of distributing their own code?

I am quickly becoming a believer in the theory that corporations, by nature, have no conscience. How else can this sort of thing be explained? As far as I can tell, every person I know there -- as individuals -- are decent, honest people. And then something like this gets announced. Ugly. Very ugly.

I'm not going to do anything rash right now. Not turning in notice just yet. (Even if I did have something else lined up, it wouldn't be cool of me to jump ship in the middle of a project.) In the future, though, if they continue down the dark path, I'm going to have to consider parting ways. Send my resume around, keep my eyes open. Even if it means taking a lower paycheck, trading money for peace of mind is a better deal, isn't it?

In my ideal world, one could write code, make things that are useful to people, get paid for it, and not have to feel like I'm being a party to some shady, underhanded scheme. (And yes, there are other things recently, besides the software patent announcement, that had me questioning anyway, but they're not as egregious, and I'm not going into those now.)

Here's hoping for a brighter future. Peace to you all.

--Bitscape

I'd say that serves as a healthy introduction to our topic for the evening. Saves me having to type and reiterate it all here. :)

So... I got some responses. All of them well thought out. All of them well reasoned. All making good points. All supportive, in one way or another. (Duh. I sent the message to people I know to be my allies -- if not on the specific issue, allies with regard to life in general.)

I know I sort of alluded to the subject indirectly in Friday night's rather odd rambling. Maybe it's premature to be discussing this directly here, but.... since this page has more or less become my own "Captain's Personal Log", albeit a log that's viewable to any and all, I don't want to omit, or even delay, such an important segment. (And yes, I know I have omitted or breezed over some other major things in recent times, but that is by absolute necessity, done mostly to keep other, less 15-minutes-of-fame types from being forced into the fray.)

And so, this has been heavy on my mind recently. I probably shouldn't have to say this, because it should be obvious, but just in case, a standard disclaimer: The fact that I post this is not meant to slight my company, or anyone in it in any way. It is intended as a public reflection on my life, and issues that I am currently struggling with. Since my life obviously intersects with the workplace, I can't help but say some things about it, directly or indirectly, when I post. Still, take it all with a geeky grain of salt. This could all just be "Tales from the back of Bitscape's nutty brain, which have no bearing whatsoever on reality." Or... Yeah, I think the point has been conveyed.

It's past my bedtime, and my thoughts are running dry, so I'll try to get through this briefly.

Of the suggestions and ideas, all of which were worthwhile, more than one of the responses was that I should take this to the higher ups in the company, inform them of my views on the issue, and find out exactly what the their intentions are. Then everyone can be clear on where we stand, and make informed decisions based on that information.

(I contemplated saving this whole rambling until after I've done so, but for reasons stated above, I decided that the time to chronicle things was sooner, rather than later.)

The other thing I need to figure out is exactly what I will stand for. Differentiate between things I may not like, and that which crosses my line of tolerance. This patent issue comes very close to being in the "absolutely will not go along" category, IF the intention is to -- like the pirates of old -- go after unwitting victims of an insane system in the war of intellectual property.

It was also pointed out that because the current sad state of the affairs (thank you, idiots in congress), in some ways, it's almost necessary for businesses to become somewhat involved in the tangle if they are to survive. Can that be done without contributing to making the problem worse?

Well, maybe. But it sure ain't simple, especially if you want to legally insure that future decision makers don't screw things up, and start firing lawsuits left and right. Really, a just plain sucky situation.

Bottom line: I need to contact the higher ups. Find out what's going on. Also figure out what my boundries are. Although the former might trigger more butterflies in the stomach, the latter might actually prove more difficult to decide when it comes down to the wire. I mean...

What if the worst turns out to be true? Do I just up and leave, turning my back on all the parts that are good, giving up a workplace environment that I enjoy, a salary that pays my expenses, and work that keeps my mind engaged in a positive way? All over some pie in the sky, idealistic view of the way things should be? No wonder most people aren't into the whole idealism thing.

But then I go back to how it's not all just a bunch of theoretical mumbo jumbo idealism. There are real people who are affected by this kind of crap on a regular basis. In the future, one of those people could just as easily be me.

So, then I think, maybe I don't want to know. Turn my head the other way, go happily about my daily work, and if anything stupid happens, well... at least it wasn't my fault. So maybe I don't even want to go to the trouble of communicating or finding out. Maybe I just want to keep my bliss.

OTOH, as one person pointed out, maybe if I go and meet with the appropriate people, I might find out it's not so bad as I might have guessed. (Assuming, of course, that I trust their word, which I would I hope I could. And if I did trust such individuals, what's to insure future replacements don't have other intentions? That's where another person's idea of legally binding signed documents comes in, but that... adds another level of complexity to the equation. And if I'm that paranoid, maybe it is time to just move on. But I don't want to do that since I like my job, and...)

That paragraph just wouldn't end gracefully.

So, this is indeed a dilemma. However, a wise man once said, "Communication is the key to life." I believe that is the next step.