(Warning: This post contains commentary about Dave Winer. By reading further, you have agreed — both implicitly and explicitly — to read about the often mind-numbing machinations involving the “Father of RSS” and those who have chosen to use their programming powers for evil instead of good. You hereby waive any right to complain later about the fact that it has given you a headache — ed.)
I wasn’t going to write anything about the latest development in the Dave Winer and Rogers Cadenhead saga, because I’ve probably wasted enough electrons already on that topic a few times in the past, but I couldn’t resist after reading a post Rogers did on the legal settlement that he and Dave managed to hash out after Dave sued him.
Part of the reason I couldn’t resist is that I find the whole thing fascinating in a strange way (Kent Newsome also seems unable to resist) because Dave is such a legend in the programming community, and yet still seems to spend a lot of time lashing out at people over slights (either perceived or real), culminating in the lawsuit against Rogers — a guy who has spent more time than he would probably like to admit defending Dave. This comment by Rogers is brilliant:
“I originally hoped one of us would buy the other out and launch the application, but we found a much stronger basis for agreement in a mutual desire to stop working together as quickly as possible.”
And later on, after noting that the publicity from the blogosphere undoubtedly helped his case, Rogers says:
“I’m not going to close the book on this debacle with any Panglossian happy talk about how it all worked out for the best. This was a completely unnecessary sphincter-fusing legal dispute that could have been settled amicably months ago without benefit of counsel.”
Well said, Rogers. Happy to hear that it’s over.