Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!phri!marob!manes
From: manes@marob.MASA.COM (Steve Manes)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Commercial software in comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Message-ID: <596@marob.MASA.COM>
Date: 22 Mar 89 11:24:28 GMT
References: <6260@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Organization: ESCC  New York City
Lines: 25

From article <6260@bsu-cs.UUCP>, by dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi):
> But most people haven't addressed an issue I raised.  Very briefly, the
> question is:
> 
>      Should illegal use of shareware be considered a benefit?
> 
> I'm not making a judgement here.  I'm asking a question.
A benefit to whom?  Downloading and using Shareware isn't illegal.  It's
what Shareware authors want people to do, after all.  Free distribution
of Shareware is not only completely legal, it's encouraged.  It would
only be a conflict with the author's copyright if the distribution
archive was modified in some way contrary to the author's wishes. 

What the user chooses to do with the software when s/he decides to make
it a habit really isn't the concern of the net, or shouldn't be.  When
the software is downloaded, regardless of what the license stipulates,
it's perfectly legal.  Is it of any more benefit to anyone when
net.terrorist downloads a PD wargames dialer to break into computer
systems or a PD debugger that can be used to install a virus in another
piece of software?

-- 
Steve Manes            Roxy Recorders, Inc.             Magpie-HQ BBS
UUCP : {rutgers|cmcl2}!hombre!magpie!manes              (212)420-0527
Smail: manes@MASA.COM