Let's analyze this a little more in-depth from a technical point of view...

After balancing florin's claims against POFs posts at XDA-Developers I have the following throughts on Florin's claims:

"The "softSPL" (RAM BOOT) technology was an IMEI-CHECK invention"
There are two things wrong with this assertion. The first is suggesting that the 'technology' of running code from RAM as opposed to ROM is an 'invention'. The second is the implication that since florin used that method, it is wrong for POF to do the same.

Technically: The claim that running code from RAM as opposed to ROM is an IMEI-check invention is absurd. Any embedded system developer worth one's salt will know that code on the target platform can be executed from either RAM or ROM. It doesn't take a genius to realise that running the bootloader from RAM is less risky. The claim that this is an 'invention' is rather ridiciolous. As other's pointed out, a similar technique is used (for a different purpose) in gnuharet, among MANY other projects.
Ethically: If the 'invention' is in fact obvious, as argued above, the claim is moot. Even if it wasn't, I'd argue that there is NOTHING wrong with POF examining florin's method, learning from it, or even using it himself. It's how human beings make progress. We look at what others are doing, and use that as a starting point to create our own solutions. There is no shame in not starting every project by re-inventing the wheel.
Legally: 'Stealing' an idea is not a crime, with the exception of patented ideas. Even if, hypothetically, florin had patented this 'invention', the patent would only be valid if the idea was shown to be original, with no prior art. As explained in 'technical' this is far from the case.

"The radio firmware patch used by pof was 'stolen' from IMEI-CHECK"
This is a more substantial allegation, which would place POF on shakier ethical and legal ground. Florin's allegation is backed up with the convincing evidence that his birthday remains embedded in POFs unlock tool.

Technically: The patched firmware consists of 99.99% HTC code, with presumably a few bytes changed by florin to ensure the patched radio ROM accepts the same key on all devices. Although there are probably only a few ways of patching the HTC firmware, the exact same patch was copied from florin, as evidenced by the birthday key.
Ethically: If an original work containing a significant amount of creativity or expression was copied, I'd argue it would be wrong. However, is a simple substitution of the unlock code with a fixed 8 byte number a form of creative expression? Of course not. If florin's business model relies on keeping a 10 byte modiciation to a ROM secret, I'd argue his business model is fundamentally flawed.
Legally: Contemporary copyright law is based on the above ethical viewpoint. It grants the creator of an original creation exclusive rights to use that creation. However, only creative works can be copyrighted. To quote Wikipedia, it is not designed or intended to cover the actual idea, concepts, facts, styles, or techniques which may be embodied in or represented by the copyright work. What has been copied is a *technique* and possibly an *idea*, and therefore the action was not illegal under copyright law. It's difficult to argue that the 10 byte patch is a form of expression.

That POF did not mention the source, and released it under his own name.
POFs XDA-Developers posts clearly indicate that he had no intention to misrepresent florin's work as his own. He was pretty clear that he was using Florin's method.

Technically: POFs posts show that he completely understood the method of operation of florin's unlocker. He posted this method of operation, never implying that he was responsible for 'inventing' it.
Ethically: It's not plagiarism - POF did not try to conceal the true source of the information he obtained.
Legally: It's a non-issue. Plagiarism is an ethical consideration, not a legal one.

That POF attempted to profit from his actions by accepting donations
I don't see how this is relevant. If what POF did was wrong, it makes no difference if it's done for fun or profit. I, like others, value the time POF has spent studying the Kaiser unlock, and releasing his findings to the community - and hope that he keeps up the good work. I'll be making a donation, in order to show my support for this.

I'm in two minds about this.

On one hand, I generally see reverse engineering as an ethically legitimate (and legal) method of learning about software. It's how progress gets made - people dissect existing solutions and look for ways to improve them. Florin has reverse engineered the HTC's code, to discover its workings and remove its restrictions. Now other's have reversed engineered Florin's code, to discover its workings and remove its restrictions. It's all good. Enforcing artificial monopolies where people are not free to dissect existing ideas and build upon them hinders technological progress, and is bad for society as a whole.

On the other hand, assuming Florin's side of the story is correct, we're not dealing with a case where someone re-used the same *technique* in order to release a competitive solution, but actually released modules copied from Florin's solution, without fully understanding how they operate. Legal issues aside, this is certainly on flaky ethical grounds.

Gripe: I really wish people would learn to differentiate between copyright infringement and theft

I dive occasionally. Basic PADI Open Water Diver qualification here.

Haven't had much time / opportunity to go diving recently, but I wouldn't call myself lapsed.

Newcastle / UK

heh... That gives me the idea of making a no-decompression dive calculator/electronic logbook app for smartphones/PPCs. Could come in handy.

For the past hour it seem to be impossible to connect to the Orangeinternet APN - from my tests, this seems to be happening accross many locations accross the UK suggesting a global outage.

Can anyone confirm / refute this?

Update: I have confirmation from a few people

I never used Locus, but for the past few months I have been heading the development of a project which has many of the features Paul described.

At this stage I don't want to publicly reveal too many details, but it's a client/server system which lets people communicate in teams using GPRS in entirely new ways.

The server-side portion is now almost complete, and the client is in pre-alpha stage. More information and possibly an early release will start trickling out in the coming weeks - stay tuned

I wouldn't trust the shortage as an indicator of success - the shortage was most likely deliberate. It's just a little marketting genius - stage a shortage and let the "wow, it sold out in 0.1 seconds -> it must be hightly sought after -> it must be a great product" mentallity spread. From your comments it seems the scam is working.

As to me, I'm planning on ordering one as soon as I spot it in stock somewhere. I don't play games, but I've been waiting desperatly for a PAL media center extender, and the XB360 offers that functionality.

Probably the same thing I'd be the first to bid.

Only one way to settle this... put his name up for auction on ebay

Hmm... Zone-MR ?

"Gaylord Focker" (Meet the Parents).

"The Hours" - NOTHING could be worse.