Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!rutgers!husc6!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!homxb!antique!cjp
From: cjp@antique.UUCP (Charles Poirier)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Software (and other kinds of) copying
Message-ID: <2049@antique.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jan 88 19:41:45 GMT
Reply-To: cjp@vax135.UUCP (Charles Poirier)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 25
Summary: Never say never

In article <886@xn.LL.MIT.EDU> olsen@ll-xn.UUCP (Jim Olsen) writes:
>If I copy a program which I would never pay for, the copyright holder
>loses nothing, since he wouldn't get any money from me anyway.  In such
>a situation, the copying is illegal, but I would not consider it immoral.

"Never" is a long, long time.  How does the average Joe Pirate *know*
that he would never pay for it?  If the answer is "Because I know I'm
going to steal it," you've got classic circular reasoning.  If it's
something you want, and if stealing it was not a moral alternative to
you, you might eventually find the means to purchase it.  But once you
steal it then Hey! I was right, I'm *not* going to buy this sucker,
heh heh heh!

The other rationalization I love to hate is "I never use 90% of the
software I pirate anyway."  Why not?  Is it because all of the free
time Joe Pirate can allocate to computers is spent playing with the
*other* 10% of his stolen goods?  He's certainly culpable for the ones
he does use.  It's like blowing up the Old Folks' Home (no offense, you
old folks out there) and claiming in his defense that most of those
people would have died anyway.

	This quarterly piracy flame is brought to you by -
-- 
	Charles Poirier   (decvax,ihnp4,attmail)!vax135!cjp

   "Docking complete...       Docking complete...       Docking complete..."