Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watdragon!violet!kgschlueter
From: kgschlueter@violet.waterloo.edu (Kevin Schlueter)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Software theives (FLAME ON!!)
Message-ID: <16146@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 27 Aug 89 05:11:16 GMT
References: <30706@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <6846@rpi.edu> <21818@cos.com> <7732@cbmvax.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: kgschlueter@violet.waterloo.edu (Kevin Schlueter)
Distribution: na
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 24

Recently there have been several "confessions" of software piracy as well
as several follow-ups stating that the "confessors" will be put on some
sort of list.  People making such lists should remember that:

1.  Usenet messages can have fake senders (anyone who reads news around
    April 1 should know this).

2.  Someone other than the official owner of the account may be using it to
    readnews and post messages.

3.  In Canada and the U.S., people are assumed innocent until proven 
    guilty by due process.

4.  In light of points 1 and 2, it is unlikely that 3 could satisfied by
    a usenet article alone.

Even if the above were not true, do you think that you can even slightly
slow software piracy by noting the names of one or two alleged pirates?
I bet most of these alleged pirates have copied less than 10 software
packages each and probably mostly games at that.  Obviously, this doesn't
make their actions right, but it's silly to waste your time going after
these people.  The people making lists are like a police force that
pulls over 1 or 2 cars for driving 10 mph over the speed limit and lets
30 or 40 cars that are driving much faster get away.