Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!pacbell!pbhya!whh
From: whh@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Commercial software in comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Message-ID: <24837@pbhya.PacBell.COM>
Date: 22 Mar 89 22:24:11 GMT
References: <6260@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Organization: Pacific * Bell, Oakland, CA
Lines: 27

In article <6260@bsu-cs.UUCP>, dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
> 
>      Should illegal use of shareware be considered a benefit?

It depends on your politics:

If you take the liberal tack as given in the "Hitchhikers Guide to
the Galaxy" series--"property is theft", and therefore whatever you
can steal, you own--then this is not only okay, but to be encouraged.

If you are conservative, then everything not required is forbidden
and this constitutes a terrible crime against private property.

Perhaps the more realistic question is:

Are software licenses on shareware enforcible?  (Last I heard,
it was questionable that commercial "shrink-wrap" licenses could
be enforced, and that's a *much* clearer issue.)

In the end--who benefits? and who pays the cost?  If the benefit
is great enough to cover the cost, then the practice will continue.

=========================================================================
  Hal Heydt                             |    Money is the root of all
  Analyst, Pacific*Bell                 |    evil--and a man *needs*    
  415-645-7708                          |    roots.
  whh@pbhya.PacBell.COM