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From: ken@ihuxq.UUCP (ken perlow)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: re: Software Piracy
Message-ID: <837@ihuxq.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Apr-84 00:25:49 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxq.837
Posted: Thu Apr 12 00:25:49 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Apr-84 03:32:39 EST
References: <427@burl.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 33

--
You can call it stealing, as the law does, but that does not make it
immoral.  Is sex between unmarried consenting adults immoral?  In
most states it's sure as hell illegal.  I don't condone the copying
of software you're asked not to, but the issue is a real hard one.
When you engage in that activity, you have gained something, but
all the other person has lost (*NOT* like a car or jewelry, analogies
that have been proposed) is a potential market.  Most who buy
Illinois lottery tickets lose a potential fortune every day,
but somehow the state will not believe they've been ripped off.

The laws on software piracy exist to make it easier for software
producers to make a profit.  That is neither good nor bad--that's
how America works.  Parts of the tax code do the same for other
industries.  To say "you broke the law, so you are a bad person"
is to hide behind a very artificial distinction.  Laws on software
piracy have nothing to do with morality.  I believe there is a tenet
in law called "status to sue."  If you violate my civil rights, say
by illegal search and seizure--a 4th Amendment proscription, but I
can't show I've been damaged, I can't sue you.  No damage, no wrong.
Your action will possibly inconvenience me, perhaps embarrass me, but
if I can't peg that to real suffering I have no case.  So one
solution (to which I have no attachment) is for aggrieved software
writers, on a case by case basis, to have to prove damages.  The
principle of "de minimis" (the law does not bother with trifles,
which is why no one ever sues for $1.50) should also apply.  Comments?
-- 
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JE MAINTIENDRAI   ***** *****
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ken perlow       *****   *****
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