Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tektronix!percival!bucket!leonard
From: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Software Development And Piracy (Spurred By FTL replies)
Message-ID: <1176@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 88 19:57:38 GMT
References: <555@icus.islp.ny.us> <2363@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <1334@leah.Albany.Edu> <5769@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <1343@leah.Albany.Edu> <245@taniwha.UUCP> <401@eda.com>
Reply-To: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Organization: Rick's Home Grown Unix; Portland, OR
Lines: 48

In article <401@eda.com> jim@eda.com (Jim Budler) writes:
<Wrong! You obviously have little grasp of the concept of property.
<Intellectual property *is* property. It has *everything* to do
<with theft. You copy a program, you have stolen.

[arguments ommitted]

<You copy a $39 game program and you have deprived various people of
<their lawful revenue:
<	1) The publisher, oh lets say $2
<	2) The retailer, uh, give him $2

Wrong. Neither the retailer nor the publisher is due *any* money.
You didn't obtain the program thru them. If I buy a car direct from
the factory, neither the wholesaler nor my local dealer are due any
money. They didn't provide any service, so they don't get any money.

The author (or the copyright owner) is due some money. But I'd say you
could reasonably argue that they aren't due any amount beyond the
normal royalty on the package. On a $39 game, this may only be $1
*or less*. 

This doesn't make copying any more ethical, but it should point out
that any claims of loss due to piracy shouldn't be based on the price
of the program. (A strong case can be made that the publisher can 
claim the lost *profits*, but not the full retail price!)

In a world with totally honest end-users, I strongly doubt that more 
than an *exceedingly* small fraction of what are now pirate copies
would be replaced by legal copies. The users would do without instead.
Or they'd find a cheaper package that would still meet their needs.
(I'm quite happy with Multiplan 3.0 at $200, no way will I buy Lotus
at $700+!)

It *is* possible to find legal ways to obtain software cheaply. I 
obtained an *old* copy of Wordstar that had been bundled with a system
from someone when he junked the system. I then upgraded this copy
to the current version for slightly over $100. I couldn't afford the
full price, but I found a *legal* way to get it cheaper! 

Of course this doesn't help you on games, but they tend to be cheap
anyway...

-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I used to be a hacker. Now I'm a 'microcomputer specialist'.
You know... I'd rather be a hacker."