🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1685@tekgen.bv.tek.com> boblu@tekgen.bv.tek.com (Robert Luneski) writes:

>In article <BzB7yM.9u0@ccu.umanitoba.ca> ens@ccu.umanitoba.ca writes:
>>Software piracy is decidedly a grey area. Tom is far too poor

>Bull. There is nothing "grey" about software piracy.  Piracy is a euphamism
>for theft. 

Piracy is not a euphemism; it _means_ theft.

>If you use software that you have not legally obtained a license
>for use then you have stolen it. Period. Nothing grey about it!

This is true. There is no grey area in a legal sense. But in a moral
sense, it is different than stealing TVs. When I was a student, pay TV
in my city was easy to pirate with a simple notch filter, and I blush
to admit that I was guilty. I rationalized it the same way software
pirates do: I would never have subscribed anyway.  In the last 5+
years, pay TV has been far more complicated to pirate, and I have done
without, and I am not even tempted to subscribe in spite of increased
affluence. What did the cable company lose on me?  I'm not suggesting
that all copyright pirates would not have otherwise bought the
product. But the fraction that would have is much less than 1; hence
the grey area.

>>I have seen this scenario play out many times. It's illegal, yes.
>>But as bad as stealing 6 TVs? Get serious.

>You tell that to my son when I can't buy him shoes because software sales are
>down and then I get calls for product support from three times the number of
>users than can be accounted for by legal sales.  You would be surprised how
>many unique stories people come up with for why they don't know there
>registration number AND never sent in their card AND can't find their manual 
>AND lost their orginal disk.

I'm sorry about your son's feet, but he would not be any better shod
if the pirates deleted your software, but did not buy legit copies.

>It happens, it's real, it's illegal, and it is killing ST developers.

Or is it the reason ST still has developers? That's a bit extreme,
but it's difficult to prove that the impact of piracy is entirely
negative.

Werner