Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!motcsd!seye
From: seye@motcsd.csd.mot.com (seye.ewedemi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Why do people pirate software?
Keywords: None
Message-ID: <1304@engadm2.csd.mot.com>
Date: 9 Aug 90 18:45:15 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Motorola CSD, Cupertino CA
Lines: 36

brendan@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au (Brendan Mahony) writes:
>This brings into question the good sense of those who write these laws.
>Unenforcable laws are bad laws. At best they bring into disrepute the
>makers and enforcers of the law. I think we will just have to start
>accepting that the patterns of production and distribution that work so
>well for primary and secondary industries are simplying not serving the
>information industry properly.

The previous passage indirectly portrays a mentality that is very scary.
It also shows the frame of mind of a large percentage of American people
in recent years that has lead to the unlimitless drug problem that we now
face.  I can see little children in New York thinking such thoughts as above
before bashing the head of a classmate for his Air Jordans.  This is not a
flame directed at the writer of the passage because I'm not altogether sure
he knew exactly what he was implying; this is more of a reaction to a 
deadly thought I had from reading his passage.

The problem is this:	To say that something that is not enforcable should
not be a law, or is a bad law, is to limit a crime to our human ability to
catch the criminal.  The two are not the same.  Just because one can get
away with something doesn't erase the offence of the crime.  There should
be a higher judge internal to all of us that watches our actions and 
enforces these crimes since a mere mortal policeman cannot be at all places
at all times.  Some people call this a conscience.  Some people still have
one that is effected every time the do something morally wrong even if they
get away with it.  To argue that software pirating isn't a moral crime is
another argument all together.  There would be some worth to such an argument
since not all laws in the books are morally criminal.  Take for example,
30 years ago when it was a crime for blacks and whites to go to the same 
schools.  However, to say that a law that cannot be enforced is not a 
good law is a fatal mistake that can bring on chaos in ways we cannot even 
imagine.  Especially now that the criminals are getting smarter and it is
much harder to catch them.  Soon, there may not even be a smoking gun to
locate the murderers with.  Who knows what the future brings?

The Seye