Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!sri-unix!GZ@Mit-Mc.ARPA
From: GZ@Mit-Mc.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: More on Software policy
Message-ID: <12200@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Apr-84 08:43:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12200
Posted: Wed Apr 11 08:43:00 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 9-May-84 23:48:32 EDT
Lines: 30

From:  Gail Zacharias <GZ@Mit-Mc.ARPA>

    Date: 6 Apr 84 10:49:36-PST (Fri)
    From: decvax!mcnc!ecsvax!dmimi at Ucb-Vax.ARPA
	...
    It is evident that pirating software IS stealing ...

People keep saying this.  It is not at all evident to me.  It is clear that
it is illegal to make copies of copyrighted material beyond the fair use
provisions, but the law is not the final authority on morality.  In this
case, the author does not lose anything he had, he only loses POTENTIAL
profit.  That potential exists *only* because the copyright laws grant it,
so if you are discussing the morality of copyright laws, that particular
argument is circular.  The main argument for copyright protection seems to
be that if it wasn't there, nobody would bother writing anything, since
they couldn't make enough off of it beyond the one initial sale.  That may
be true, but I don't see any significant moral force behind that sort of
reasoning.  It doesn't hold for almost any other profession you can think
of, e.g.  construction workers don't make any money for the use of
buildings they build, they only get paid for the initial labor.  Scientific
(as opposed to engineering) discoveries get no legal protection at all.
This is considered highly beneficial to the progress of science (i.e.
"standing on the shoulders of giants").  It is entirely feasible that if
copyright protection for software didn't exists, some other kind of
economic scheme would develop, most likely around maintenance and
distribution of software, handholding and other consulting services and so
on.  In the mean time, society would benefit since instead of writing still
another Pascal compiler from scratch, you could take an existing one and
make it better instead, causing real progress instead of the constant
re-inventing of the wheel so prevalent in the software industry today.