Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!srhqla!magnus!levin
From: levin@magnus.Hotline.Com (Michael M Levin)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Scareware
Message-ID: <643@magnus.Hotline.Com>
Date: 14 Mar 90 07:47:21 GMT
References: <14010@s.ms.uky.edu> <125816@midas.UUCP> <635@magnus.Hotline.Com> <34812@watmath.waterloo.edu> <10612@hoptoad.uucp> <1370@utoday.UUCP> <1990Mar10.020747.29783@pegasus.com> <1342@utoday.UUCP>
Reply-To: levin@magnus.Hotline.Com (Michael M Levin)
Organization: Silent Radio, Los Angeles
Lines: 62

Following up to Ross Greenberg:

>I stay away from the legal arguments simply because there's nothing there
>that counts, one way or the other.  I merely prefer people to act in what
>I consider an ethical way.  If you don't pay for a shareware program,
>stop using it. That's all.  It's the right thing to do.  
>
>That's all.  Using shareware without paying for it is wrong.  Paying for
>the shareware you use is right.  If you're uncomfortable paying for shareware,
>stop using it.
>
>That's all.

I think the key issue here is getting lost.  The "ethics" that you are
referring to, Ross, are by your own words **YOUR** ethics ("...what I consider
to be an ethical way").  Your ethics are yours, my ethics are mine, and what
folks who keep insisting that shareware is appropriate to distribution via
Usenet keep seeming to miss (or to sidestep) is that **YOUR** ethics AND
**MY** ethics are not the issue.  The issue is simply that the ethics of
USENET (and I assure you, there is definitely an ethic) regards the use of
other people's computer facilities, and their telephone expenses, to be
something which is the responsibility of the person posting an article.  And,
by the 'club rules' (if you wish to look at it that way), causing other folk
to incur costs for the purpose of your own financial gain is a violation of
the ETHICS which you are obliged to follow if you use the net.

If there is an issue here, it is more a question of why should I respect your
rights, and your privacy, etc. when you abuse something of mine??  Albeit you
can ignore that issue, and simply address that of the person who is all to
happy to grab your software without paying for it, I think you're off base.
If you stick a display rack on my front lawn, without my permission, and
place your product for sale in it, you can jump up and down all day long about
people being 'unethical' if they come by and decide to snatch one for them-
selves without paying the requested sum of money.  BUT, by definition, you
are misusing MY property in doing so.  FURTHERMORE, may I remind you that
this is a CAPITALISTIC world (and since you're in business, you're a capital-
ist too), and NOBODY in the world of business is going to be foolish enough
to try to conduct their business that way.

Why don't you set up a totally seperate 'SHAREWARE' distribution, which may
optionally be carried by any Usenet site, and organize it such that if any-
body wants to carry it, they are contractually obliged to pass that obligation
on to anybody they feed.  And they, in turn, contractually obligate anybody
who wants to actually snarf a copy.  THEN, you'd have a case for talking
about 'ethics' if somebody decides to be a scum and 'steal' a copy without
paying the price.  Do that, and you've got my unwavering support and
sympathy if your efforts are abused.  But, do what you're doing now, and I
feel NO obligation whatsoever to pay you for an unsolicited product, as well
as feeling you're stealing from me.



				IMHO,


				Mike Levin

-- 
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| | ___  ___ |_| ___   Michael Levin     SilentRadio Headquarters- Los Angeles
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