🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <aac5te$c9d$1@shot.codefab.com>,
 "Chuck Swiger" <chuck@codefab.com> wrote:
> You appear to understand that it's wrong to steal software when the company is
> still selling it.  You seem to believe that it somehow becomes okay to steal
> software once that product is no longer being sold.

No, I don't believe that it becomes okay to steal software ever! Anyway, 
I didn't say, that I want to steal it (because I own a license) but want 
to help people who are interested and have no possibility to get it 
anymore - not for money.

> Maybe an analogy would help: If it's not okay to steal a new car off of the
> dealer's lot, would it be okay to steal a used car from a user car dealer's
> lot? 
In this case it wouldn't be the car, it would be the engine. And I 
wouldn't steal it, I would give it away as a present.

> Would it matter whether Ford or whoever was still making that particular
> model of car or whether they had discontinued that model?

I think there's a difference: If you own a vintage car e.g. a Mercedes 
you still get support for it from the company (ok not from every 
carmaker, but most help you out - at least in Germany) and then you can 
still buy things. Apple isn't giving any support for NS/OS, so I ask 
you, what should people do then?
I agree with you when you say, stealing is breaking the law. But in this 
case, there are only a few people, neither hundreds nor thousands. So 
the damage for the company (in this case Apple) wouldn't be that 
considerable. I think it's more critical ( and criminal), when you burn 
a copy of NS/OS and sell it (as I found out that there are people in the 
US who are doing so). But I think if you help someone, who is interested 
in this, he should get the chance to see/use it. Apple won't give NS/OS 
free although it's not compatible with OSX. That's a point I don't 
understand and I think in this case you can "bend" the law a little ;-)
But don't missunderstand my opinion. I think there's already enough 
piracy out there, but this should be an exception.
> 
> [ Note that what we're discussing has nothing to do with opinion, merely
>   straightforward facts and the law.  My opinions about 'abandonware' are
>   actually pretty close to yours, but, unlike many people, I don't wish away
>   unpleasant facts simply because they conflict with my opinions.  You don't
>   somehow gain the right to take something just because you want it. ]

I don't wish away unpleasant facts, but tell me another solution? You' 
re right and I'm wrong, but in this case it's not that easy (ok, not for 
a lawyer, but for a NeXTfan).

> There is something called mkisofs, but you would need to perform a raw copy of
> the NEXTSTEP installation CDs for the copy to contain a bootable filesystem.
> An ISO image wouldn't be bootable.

That doesn't matter when I have an image and burn it directly to the CD 
- it will be a copy of the CD from which the image was made. AFAIK the 
NS 3.3 CD isn't bootable.


Oliver

-- 

I haven't lost my mind; it's backed up on tape somewhere!