Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uc!nic.MR.NET!umn-cs!davidli
From: davidli@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU (Dave Meile)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Software thieves
Summary: There may soon be a lot of one-handed computer users...
Message-ID: <14017@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU>
Date: 28 Jun 89 14:43:07 GMT
References: <890625.11081288.023669@SFA.CP6> <934@sering.cwi.nl> <89178.154603SML108@PSUVM>
Reply-To: davidli@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu (Dave Meile)
Organization: Flying Taoist Graphics
Lines: 40

In article <89178.154603SML108@PSUVM> SML108@PSUVM.BITNET writes:
>  There is no rationlization for piracy, it is theft, and that is
>all it is.  Anyone that is making a livelihood off that theft is
>a thief.  I prescribe the Islamic punishment for thieves.
>
>  Flame away, these are just my views.......
>
>Scott Le Grand

Be wary of what you desire, for you may attain it.

When you get down to it, many people are "thieves" who do consider themselves
to be law-abiding citizens.  For example, just to note a few general areas:

1) If you have a music playing program and _any_ translation of a popular piece
   of music, you are a thief.  The copyright owners of the music did not grant
   a license for transcription, sale, or dispersal outside of their own
   venues.

2) If you have a graphics display program and _any_ graphics which were
   scanned from a magazine or television, you are a thief.  The creators of
   those graphics have a copyright on them, and I hightly doubt that you've
   obtained a license to translate those graphics into computer-readable
   format.

The task now is to explain why these cases are any different from unauthorized
copies of software programs.  The practical outlook is that there is _no_
difference ... does that mean you are going to throw away every questionable
graphic, every piece of computer music?

This becomes still _more_ of a problem when you get into the area of
Desktop Publishing, with easy access to computer-accessible graphics and text.

As an aside, your automobile analogy is fairly worthless.  I cannot go down to
the neighborhood garage and make a _copy_ of your Porsche to drive around town.
If I _could_, you might never realize that your Porsche was missing (you know --
in by 9, out by 1)?  In any case, material objects do not behave in the same
manner as ideas.

David Meile