Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!phri!roy From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Piracy Summary: Overpriced software: just say "no". Keywords: copy protection piracy Message-ID: <3272@phri.UUCP> Date: 17 May 88 12:15:49 GMT Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY) Lines: 31 I fail to see why this is so complicated. I have something which I am willing to sell to you for $X. If you think what I have is worth $X, you buy it. If you don't think it's worth $X, you don't buy it. It is totally immaterial why I decided that $X is my selling price, I just did. From your point of view, if the value you get from my product is worth $X, what difference does it make if I'm going to use that money to buy myself another Rolls Royce, give a raise to my employees, send food to Ethiopia, or keep my nose supplied with coke for the next month? Let's say, for example, that I have a program which can make a Macintosh emulate an IBM-1130 (you have to supply your own SCSI card reader/punch and line printer). I decide to sell it for $1,750 (two free upgrades included). Does that make me immoral? No, it just makes me stupid. Does it give you the right to steal a hot copy of my program? No, it just gives you the right to not buy it. OK, let me admit that sometimes there are reasons other than price why you would or wouldn't want to buy something. Let's say, for example, that I have something which I'm willing to sell for $X again. But you know that I do a lot of business with South Africa, or that I exploit illegal aliens, or dump PCBs into the river behind my factory, or that I'm a Republican. You decide that you can't in good conscience do business with me. Fair enough, that's your decision. You can even take out a full page ad in the New York Times explaining to other people why you won't do business with me and extolling others to do likewise. But you still don't have the right to steal my software. -- Roy Smith, System Administrator Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 {allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers}!phri!roy -or- phri!roy@uunet.uu.net