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From: lauren@RAND-UNIX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re:  piracy
Message-ID: <12533@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Apr-84 12:43:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12533
Posted: Wed Apr 18 12:43:30 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 11-May-84 08:16:53 EDT
Lines: 21

You don't read very carefully, apparently.  I didn't say that people
that disagree with me are cretins -- I suggested that the sort of 
person who copies and never pays (be it software, books, etc.) is
a, well, there's a stronger word I'd like to use, but "cretin"
has to suffice in this public forum.  In fact, it's not so much the
people who break the law that bother me, but the ones who attempt
to equate a high moral purpose to such a simple act as stealing.  

There have been some messages to this list from people who drew
a comparison between stealing software and not being able to
stop smoking.  There have been "pirates" who admitted that stamping
out software piracy would be a good thing.  If nothing else, I
can respect such people for being relatively honest in their
statements.  But when other people show no respect for such a simple
concept as not ripping off other people, I have very little
patience.  Software piracy is only a high moral issue in the eyes
of such people -- since they don't want to spend the money they
rationalize their actions any way they can.  Very human, but
still worthy of considerable contempt.

--Lauren--