Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!hp0p+ From: hp0p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Hokkun Pang) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc Subject: software piracy? Message-ID: Date: 23 Dec 90 14:36:20 GMT Organization: Class of '92, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 18 how do people feel about software piracy? i think it is a terrible idea to pirate reasonably priced (such as borland's) and personal-use oriented (such as procomm, pc tools, games, etc) softwares. my feeling is that these softwares truly reflect their worth, what you invest is what you enjoy. on the other hand, i probably wouldn't mind using an illegal copy of lotus 123/autocad if my usage is not profit-related. how do software houses feel about software piracy? do they really care if someone use an ilegal copy of lotus 123 to balance his personal checkbook? or dbase to manage his personal collection of wines? it seems to me that most software houses would care less about this, after all, spending $500+ dollars for a personal database is not affordable. in fact i even suspect they would wlecome to to do that, because chances are, your familarity with their softwares would encourage your employer to buy. should software houses start setting two different prices for their software? regular priced one for commercial use and heavily discounted one for personal use (perhaps with constraints such as no/limited support)? or is the current model (don't care if you pirate it for personal use) working as desired?