Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!mit-eddie!killer!usl!usl-pc!jpdres10
From: jpdres10@usl-pc.usl.edu (Green Eric Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Message-ID: <142@usl-pc.usl.edu>
Date: 10 Dec 88 20:55:34 GMT
References: <555@icus.islp.ny.us> <2363@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <1334@leah.Albany.Edu> <5769@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <1343@leah.Albany.Edu>
Organization: Univ. of Southwestern La., Lafayette
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In message <1343@leah.Albany.Edu>, jac423@leah.Albany.Edu (Julius A Cisek) says:
>In article <5769@thorin.cs.unc.edu>, bell@unc.cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell) writes:
>> Was that neighbor going to buy every piece of
>> of ST software if the copy protection is perfect?  Don't be ridiculous.
>> If I could make copies of porsches,  I'd probably have one,  even though I
>> can't afford to buy one.
>
>> Most big-time pirates are fairly young,  and don't have the disposable
>> income to buy that much software. 
>
>> Step one:  think about what piracy actually hurts customers.  That would be
>> piracy by business and professional people,  who have the income to buy the
>> software.
>
>Wait a second! So what you're saying is that its okay to pirate stuff if
>you can't afford to buy it? That's insane! Can I steal your car  because
>I can't afford one myself?

Specious analogy. If I steal your car, you can no longer use it. If I
"steal" your computer program, by copying it, you can still use it.
In other words, you haven't been deprived of your property etc.

An interesting moral question (in places outside the U.S., where, as
Reagan always tells us, there is no poverty):

If your family starving, is it right to steal in order to feed them?

(yes, unfair, but no more so than the "stealing the Porsche"
analogy!).

--
Eric Lee Green                            P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509
     {ames,mit-eddie,osu-cis,...}!killer!elg, killer!usl!elg, etc.