Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!s1!jrk
From: jrk@s1.sys.uea.ac.uk (Richard Kennaway CMP RA)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Message-ID: <287@s1.sys.uea.ac.uk>
Date: 13 Dec 88 09:58:16 GMT
References: <555@icus.islp.ny.us> <2363@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <1334@leah.Albany.Edu> <6390@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Organization: UEA, Norwich, UK
Lines: 40

In article <6390@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>, chari@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Chris Whatley) writes:
> In article <245@taniwha.UUCP> michael@taniwha.UUCP (Michael Hamel) writes:
> >Whoa thar! We are talking about copying. This has *nothing* to do with theft.

Right.  Too many people are saying, here and elsewhere, that copying
is theft.  Theft deprives someone of the use of their property.
Copying does not.  This doesnt mean that copying is not wrong, just that
it's not theft.

> >Maybe you *can* copy my car if you can't afford one yourself. Wouldn't that
> >make for a kinder, gentler nation?
> I'm sorry but that is the most ludicrous concept. Pure fantasy! Is this not
> a capitalistic economy? Said copying seriously devalues the software product.

Copying software does not change its value one whit.  It reduces the
*price* the manufacturer is able to sell it for.  The only difference
other peoples' illegal copies of the software I use can make to me is
that it hurts the fortunes of the companies who wrote it, who may therefore
not write any more.  The idea that copiers have stolen something from the
software itself is the ludicrous concept.

> It DOES NOT make any sense to say otherwise. If in your fantasy-land (you
> know, the "kinder and gentler nation", Ha!) we could copy others posessions
> and then those posessions would be worthless and the company who made them
> would likely go bankrupt. Gee wouldn't that be great!

Ever heard of the FSF?
I don't mean Fantasy and Science Fiction :-)

> Chris
> 
> -- 
> <-->
> INET: chari@killer.DALLAS.TX.US   |  BIX: chari
> UUCP: {anywhere}!killer!chari     |  -- 
> CI$: 71370,1654                   |  Phone: 512/453-4238

-- 
Richard Kennaway                SYS, University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K.
uucp:	...mcvax!ukc!uea-sys!jrk	Janet:	kennaway@uk.ac.uea.sys