Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!percival!bucket!leonard
From: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for sample software ethics documents
Message-ID: <1317@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 21 Mar 89 07:03:55 GMT
References: <3720@phri.UUCP>
Reply-To: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Organization: Rick's Home Grown Unix; Portland, OR
Lines: 41

In article <3720@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes:
<	The place where I work has a problem with pirating of software.
<The semi-official word is that it's OK to not only covet your neighbor's
<software but to copy it.  This goes as far as my being told that we simply
<will not buy multiple copies of software for our multiple "public"
<Macintoshes.  I would estimate that the ratio of purchased to pirated
<copies of most commonly used programs is at least 5 to 1.
<
<	Anyway, I need advice on two matters.  First is what sort of
<arguments might I use to convince the administration that pirating is bad?
<Arguments of "it's illegal" usually result in "but I don't see what's
<*wrong* with it" or "I don't think it violates the spirit of copyright if I
<just make a copy to use on my Mac at home", or "we'll never get caught".  I
<have been asked to set up peoples' new Macintoshes and told, regarding the
<software, "no, we're not going to buy a copy, but you won't have to be
<directly involved in the copying so don't worry about it".
<
<	Second, I would like to convince the administration to issue a
<policy statement on this subject.  I'm not planning on becoming some sort
<of software policeman, inspecting people's disks to find hot copies of
<programs, but I think it is not unreasonable for an institution to make it
<a clear written policy that software piracy, even if it's not actively
<prevented, is certainly not officially condoned.  Along those lines, I
<would be interested in reading any similar policy statements currently
<issued by other places (preferably academic institutions like ourselves).

I've run into the same problem but we *are* planning to do something
about it. What exactly we will do is still being decided. At most
companies that have a policy about this it tends to be of the "illegal
copies of software is grounds for suspension/termination" sort.

There are good reasons to be this strict. If you are caught it is the
*letter* of the law, not the spirit, that wiill be invoked. And since
penalties can run as high as $250,000 for *each* violation you are
guaranteeed to be "dead meat" if caught. And it isn't all *that* hard
to get caught, is it?
-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Short