Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!mattd
From: mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Re: Piracy
Message-ID: <31258@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 21 May 89 19:52:05 GMT
References: <8905182340.aa16502@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 63

In article <8905182340.aa16502@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> STEVENS@SENECA.BITNET writes:
>
>1 more thing! ( * Matt Deatherage! * ) I know you are probably a VERY decent
>person, BUT :-)  (I'm SMILING Matt) I bet you do SOMETHING illegal in your car!
>whether it's not using your signals to change lanes, or doing 2 miles an hour
>over the speed limit when your late for work, or even Disobeying an Amber at
>a stop light!    *  COMON ADMIT IT!  *  :-)
>
>Murray
>Stevens@Seneca
>ONCE AGAIN, THANK YOU, in Advance, In Retrospect And Otherwise for LISTENING
>
>P.S.   *   How does one 'Snort' MS-DOS anyway?   *


Other people have already addressed most of your issues, including the one
where stealing on a small scale (piracy) is somehow more ethical than stealing
a car or some other more expensive item.  However, I feel I should respond to
the above paragraph:

This really strikes me as a "trash-tv" kind of approach to arguments - "W
don't like or don't agree with the message, so we label the messenger as
a hypocrite so no one will believe him."  It's usually more effective than
I'd like to admit - either the discussion gets sidetracked on the messenger's
life as it has nothing to do with the subject at hand, or the messenger refuses
to reply and loses credibility.

There are many hundreds of thousands of laws on the books that affect each of
us in thousands of ways we don't realize, wherever we may live.  Many of them
are disobeyed or broken on a daily basis by those who never knew they existed,
and those law-breakers are not arrested by police and other authorities who
don't know about those laws, either.  Little traffic infractions, such as
not using signals when changing lanes or exceeding the speed limit, happen
every day in front of state troopers, who usually ignore them in the interest
of insuring that everyone is driving safely - which is, after all, their
main concern.

The point is that those who illegally take and use copies of copyrighte
software are not "driving safely."  They seem to think they're changing from
one lane into another on a completely empty road, or with so few cars around
them that the fact they didn't use their signals won't make any difference.
They are very much mistaken.  So many people they can't see are doing the
same thing at the same time that the whole works could come to an incredible,
crashing stop at any minute.  But they refuse to realize this, and react with
scorn and disgust when someone tries to convince them of the situation.

Piracy is not something that doesn't affect publishers and programmers.  It
does.  Publishers are making so little money in certain markets close to our
heart that they have virtually no incentive to publish new software.  If
you think this is an exaggeration, think again.  Talk to those who work in
the industry.  Ask publishers and professional developers.  Don't just look
at your friends and decide "we're not hurting anyone."  You are.


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