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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!we13!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sri-unix!vortex!lauren@Rand-Unix.ARPA
From: lauren@Rand-Unix.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Your software piracy
Message-ID: <12063@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Apr-84 18:08:06 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12063
Posted: Fri Apr  6 18:08:06 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Apr-84 03:07:33 EST
Lines: 26

While a certain amount of software piracy may be "inevitable,"
I don't think there's a hell of a lot to "understand" about people's
motives in this area.  We're not dealing with mentally disordered
sex offenders, after all.  I think that the issue is pretty clear:
There are people who have decided that since something is priced "too high"
(in their opinion) that they have the moral right/obligation to steal
it rather than pay for it.  I have difficulty seeing this in any other
light than any other form of theft.  It's just a lot easier for these
people to perform this particular type of theft than most other types.

The lengths that people will go to rationalize such acts is truly
amazing.  If they really think that they should be able to copy
software freely, perhaps they should petition Congress for an addendum
to the copyright law which reads something like:

"In cases where the prospective user of a copyrighted work or product
personally feels that it has been priced unreasonably high, that person
may freely copy the product regardless of the existing copyright."

I won't be holding my breath for this one!  C'mon -- what makes software
different from other copyrighted or trade-secret protected works?
When you make unauthorized copies of such works you are violating
the law.  The pirates seem to have set themselves up on some perceived
"higher than the law" moral ground.  Bullpucky.

--Lauren--