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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sri-unix!vortex!lauren@Rand-Unix.ARPA
From: lauren@Rand-Unix.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: piracy
Message-ID: <12288@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Apr-84 01:28:42 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12288
Posted: Sat Apr 21 01:28:42 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Apr-84 00:34:17 EST
Lines: 28

Look, if we're going to discuss software piracy, that's one thing.

But I'm getting a bit weary of people trying to make comparisons
with "the airwaves are free" arguments.  Most of these people obviously
haven't checked the laws lately -- there are FCC, federal, and
also state regulations (in many states) that specifically address the
reception of scrambled (STV) and microwave (MDS) pay-tv transmissions.

The old Communications Act is NOT the only law on the books and has
been effectively ammended by other regulations.  In some areas, there
are agents who roam around looking for "funny" antennas on people's
houses (those who are not subscribers to pay-tv services), and if the
antennas are pointed in the "right" direction, they can apply for search 
warrants in some cases.  Most of the recent court decisions on this
issue have gone in favor of the pay-tv services.  There are cases almost
daily of people being "shut down."  The era of the "free airwaves,"
modified only by third party disclosure laws, is already well past and
getting further away all the time.

In any case, I fail to see how any of this applies to the cretins who
steal software, Xerox entire books and magazines, and in general 
sponge off the rest of society because they somehow feel that *they*
are the ones who should determine how much a product should cost.

I don't advocate putting all of the software pirates in jail.
Instead, let's bring back the cat-o-nine-tails for software piracy!

--Lauren--