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From: qv@mot.UUCP (Brad Castalia)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Re: Tires and Software and Right and Wrong
Message-ID: <210@mot.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Aug-85 00:11:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: mot.210
Posted: Wed Aug 28 00:11:04 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Aug-85 21:34:16 EDT
References: <315@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: Motorola Microsystems, Phoenix AZ
Lines: 29

Allan Pratt (APratt.osbunorth@XEROX.ARPA) comments:

> out of business. Piracy is not a valid (moral, ethical) alternative. To say 
> that it is not illegal is to pick nits with lawyers. Regardless of how the 
> legislature in your State or in Washington happens to define it, the 
> Capitalist judgement of Right and Wrong must judge that practice Wrong, 
> because you are denying the purveyor his due.

Not being familiar with the church of the Capitalist Judgement I am
probably not qualified to comment on this moral or ethical notion of
Right and Wrong.  I do seem to recall that the economic system of
capitalism is, regardless of the good or bad effects, firmly based on
the philosphy implicit in the notion of laissez faire (French: "allow to
do") which means non-interference of one individual with the activities
of another.  The difficult problem of copyrights in general, and even
more so as concerns software, are created by the capitalist system that
insists that everything must have its price.  This runs headlong into
the more fundamental principle that ideas are free, and the crucial
social importance of information flowing without hindrance amongst the
members of society so that it will get into the hands of people who are
able and willing to make productive use of it to the benefit of the society.
It is very unfortunate that a capitalist economy creates this bind in a
democratic society.  But the problem is with the system that creates this
difficulty, not the individuals who (justly or not) are trying (and 
succeeding) to get around it.  For those who consider capitalism holy,
seeking a system solution may be consdered heresy (do these people castigate
users for kluging around problems with their programs?).

Brad Castalia