ethical quandry
Feb. 10th, 2003 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chhotiiSo I wrote this fairly small, simple program for use in experiments that tests a subject's performance on a small, simple task. It's now been used for research that has been published in quite respectable journals, and now that the task has those credentials, it's taking off in popularity. People looking at task-performance in schizophrenics; imaging studies; etc.
A while back I did a port of the program to Windows. Since the program is in plain old C, the Mac version is quite dependent on Mac Toolbox, and the Windows version is all tied up in Windows API. Keeping these versions in sync, then, is quite non-trivial, so I've just let the Windows version go.
I got e-mail recently from Gottfried, a researcher (not in our lab) who's been collaborating with Matt. Gottfried needed a little change to the program, a little adjustment. Oh, and he's only interested in doing it on Windows. Could I either make the fix for him, or send him the source code so that his programmer can take a whack at it. I decided to send him the source code. There's no reason to be possessive. There are no deep secrets in this code, no precious IP. And it doesn't seem particularly interesting or fun to do the work myself. If it's their study, let them make the fix.
Sent the code, got grateful e-mail back from Gottfried, which says, among other things, "Please let me know if there is any way that I could reimburse for this." My thoughts are, any way? Yes, we have a way. It's called a 1099. But, it seems not right to give it for free, and then charge for the work, just because he offered to pay. Well, nice to know that he's expressed general willingness to pay, file that fact away for future reference.
Then got e-mail again. His programmer can't figure out how to build it. He's using a much more recent version of VC++ than I have, and his VC++ is not happy with the project. Among other things, the linker complains that it can't find main. Well, duh, this is a Windows program in C, in the old-fashioned Petzold style, it only has a WinMain. Gottfried says, "I know that you are busy and I feel terrible in asking you this, but is there any chance that you could do this change?"
I think to myself, buddy, for--oh-- $50 an hour, I have all the time in the world for you. But for not $50 an hour, for just the warm fuzzies, I'm lacking the motivation to get up off the sofa and turn on my cranky PC. But on the other hand, it doesn't seem right to charge consulting rates for some dumb little thing.
Hmmm.
Ah. (Long-lost Windows-programming clue starts to resurface.) It probably is really just a wee little thing. There must be something like WM_KEY_DOWN that I should be using instead of WM_CHAR. The rest of the program still sucks, but that's the only thing Gottfried is majorly complaining about. So, sigh, I'll add another item to my to-do list, hoping to just earn karma. Or something. I'll point out all the improvements in the Mac version; if he wants the Windows version similarly improved, that will be $50/hour.
A while back I did a port of the program to Windows. Since the program is in plain old C, the Mac version is quite dependent on Mac Toolbox, and the Windows version is all tied up in Windows API. Keeping these versions in sync, then, is quite non-trivial, so I've just let the Windows version go.
I got e-mail recently from Gottfried, a researcher (not in our lab) who's been collaborating with Matt. Gottfried needed a little change to the program, a little adjustment. Oh, and he's only interested in doing it on Windows. Could I either make the fix for him, or send him the source code so that his programmer can take a whack at it. I decided to send him the source code. There's no reason to be possessive. There are no deep secrets in this code, no precious IP. And it doesn't seem particularly interesting or fun to do the work myself. If it's their study, let them make the fix.
Sent the code, got grateful e-mail back from Gottfried, which says, among other things, "Please let me know if there is any way that I could reimburse for this." My thoughts are, any way? Yes, we have a way. It's called a 1099. But, it seems not right to give it for free, and then charge for the work, just because he offered to pay. Well, nice to know that he's expressed general willingness to pay, file that fact away for future reference.
Then got e-mail again. His programmer can't figure out how to build it. He's using a much more recent version of VC++ than I have, and his VC++ is not happy with the project. Among other things, the linker complains that it can't find main. Well, duh, this is a Windows program in C, in the old-fashioned Petzold style, it only has a WinMain. Gottfried says, "I know that you are busy and I feel terrible in asking you this, but is there any chance that you could do this change?"
I think to myself, buddy, for--oh-- $50 an hour, I have all the time in the world for you. But for not $50 an hour, for just the warm fuzzies, I'm lacking the motivation to get up off the sofa and turn on my cranky PC. But on the other hand, it doesn't seem right to charge consulting rates for some dumb little thing.
Hmmm.
Ah. (Long-lost Windows-programming clue starts to resurface.) It probably is really just a wee little thing. There must be something like WM_KEY_DOWN that I should be using instead of WM_CHAR. The rest of the program still sucks, but that's the only thing Gottfried is majorly complaining about. So, sigh, I'll add another item to my to-do list, hoping to just earn karma. Or something. I'll point out all the improvements in the Mac version; if he wants the Windows version similarly improved, that will be $50/hour.
