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From: sleat@aat.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.micro
Subject: Re: Software Piracy
Message-ID: <288@aat.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Apr-84 17:41:39 EST
Article-I.D.: aat.288
Posted: Mon Apr  2 17:41:39 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Apr-84 07:57:03 EST
References: <504@mprvaxa.UUCP>, <744@orca.UUCP>
Organization: Ann Arbor Terminals
Lines: 21

Andrew Klossner posts an analogy between stealing software and stealing
a car.  All analogies have their fallacies, but this analogy is particularly
bad.  It would perhaps have been better (if more abstract) had he phrased
it in terms of making an instantaneous copy of the car, rather than removing
the physical object itself.

With his analogy he obscures the central dilemma of the issue, namely that
there is a fundamental difference between stealing a physical object and
stealing information.  Whereas it is his right to equate the two on a moral
level, attempting to equate the two on the physical level helps neither his
case nor any resolution of the social issue.

Were the situation as simple as he indicates, this discussion would not
be taking place.  It is certainly his perogative to issue his own moral
admonishments, but I find it offensive to have such admonishments couched
in terms of faulty reasoning.

Michael Sleator
Ann Arbor Terminals
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