Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!sun-barr!newstop!sun!stpeter!cmcmanis From: cmcmanis@stpeter.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: One more try... Message-ID: <133211@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> Date: 20 Mar 90 23:39:27 GMT References: <39009@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 30 In article <39009@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> (Andy Hartman) writes: > Just because a guy doesn't know what ECM stands for in FA/18 doesn't > mean he is a pirate. Maybe he is, either way, keep it to yourself. > A pirate takes risks. Let him. There is no reason for you to be his > conscience. An important point Andy is that our current law enforcement system doesn't go after pirating and thus it is ineffective in preventing it. However, the non-pirates are hurt by the pirates by paying more for software and sometimes have the company that supports their program go out of business. Therefore the only way to curb piracy today is to flame them mercilessly and publiclly. When a pirate reads how much shit someone caught for not knowing what ECM meant is he or she going to risk asking a question themselves? The answer is no, they won't. And that means that pirated programs are marginally less valuable because their greatest information resource, Usenet, won't cough up information that is in the manual that they didn't pay for. This is a social response to the problem. And to the extent that people want to be respected on Usenet (in this society) there is some social pressure not to be pirates. Amiga users and Amiga users groups have to to be loud and obnoxious whenever a pirate is discoverd to help discourage them. This society can't send a pirate to jail, but they can make someone an outcast. And often one of the motivations for piracy is the desire to "belong" to something. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: Internet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "If it didn't have bones in it, it wouldn't be crunchy now would it?!"