Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!sci.ccny.cuny.edu!phri!roy From: roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: Why do people pirate software? Message-ID: <1990Aug4.172203.22806@phri.nyu.edu> Date: 4 Aug 90 17:22:03 GMT References: <1441fullerr@yvax.byu.edu> <1990Aug2.152426.25372@phri.nyu.edu> <1990Aug3.101831.12438@rbdc> Sender: news@phri.nyu.edu (News System) Organization: Public Health Research Institute, New York City Lines: 45 In <1990Aug3.101831.12438@rbdc> brent@rbdc (Brent Daniel) writes: > you forget that the majority of piraters are between the ages of 13 and > 19. These are the people who, would like to have nice software for their > computer, but don't have the money either because they can't get a job This implies that the majority of pirating is done by individuals for personal use. Believe me, it's done plenty by companies and universities for use at work. If not by the institutions themselves, then certainly by the people who work there, with the blessings (or at least intentional ignorance) of their employers. > Pirating is totally ignored, especially from companies that sell > software for under $60 dollars. I don't think it's a matter of software companies ignoring the problem, it's just that there is no practical way to enforce it. Assume you are a software company that makes program X. My friend gives me a hot copy of program X which I install on my machine and use on a daily basis. Explain how, using whatever resources you like, you are going to find out I have a pirate copy. > I think the 'on my other machine' is actually ok. If i've payed for a copy > already, there's no reason to pay for another one. That's just logic.. It may be logic, but it's not law. Unless the software copyright owner explicitly gives you the right to make additional copies for your other machines, you can't. Note that some software licenses do grant you specific rights to make copies. Symantec, for example, allows you to install Think C on as many machines as you like, as long as (if I understand the license correctly) there is no possibility of more than one copy being in use at a given time. I take advantage of this, for example, by having one copy on my machine at work (which is password protected) and another copy at home. I suppose it is *possible* that both copies could be used at the same time, but I think I'm keeping within any reasonable interpretation of the license agreement. If, however, I bought another Mac for another programmer in my department to use and installed a copy on that machine too, I don't think anybody could reasonably argue that I wouldn't have violated both the copyright and license (two different things). -- Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy "Arcane? Did you say arcane? It wouldn't be Unix if it wasn't arcane!"