🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 14 Aug 1997 23:03:09 +1000, Adam Kennedy
<z219...@student.unsw.edu.au> wrote:

>Stealing them? How can he do that? If I borrowed a friends Ford, and
>didnt consider it worth paying for, made a copy of the Ford from the
>original one I borrowed, and then gave it back to him, would you
>consider that stealing? And yes I do realise that it a darn sight easier

saying as to how it would cost you just as much, if not more, to make
your own car, there would be no reason to copy or "steal" it since it
would be better off for both parties to just buy it. however the ford
itself is not what you are stealing. that is physical property, and
when you pay for a car, much of the cost is for the materials, and you
are buying it for the use of those materials. much like when you buy
blank disks or cds. its physical property. if you were to copy your
friend's ford, what you are stealing is the design of the car, the
immeasurable labor that went into drawing the blueprints, the
calculations it took to make sure everything would work properly. when
you "steal" software, you are stealing the data, the instructions, the
intellectual labor that went into it. arguing about stealing a car is
more closely related to the theft of the disk or cd itself...not the
software contained within. the difference is, with a car and other
physical property, you are using the physical portion. with software
and other INTELLECTUAL property, you are using the intangible portion.
THAT is why "borrowing, copying, and returning" makes it theft. you
are not using the physical portion, when you buy software you are
paying for the data, not the disk or cd that it comes on. therefore it
would be ok to pass around a disk or cd for using it as a disk or cd.
but its not ok to pass around the software, or car design, regardless
of the medium on which is distributed or the materials used to make
it. if you had the slightest grasp of the concept of intellectual
property...or the slightest hint of intellect...you would understand
why music cds and computer software should not be considered ok to
copy.

>to copy a program than copy a Ford, but the idea is still roughly the
>same. I borrow a game, I play the game (for a while). If I consider the

play the game illegally, since you have no legal right to be using it.
or, actually, your friend is violating the license agreement unless he
has deleted his copy during the time in which you use it.

>game good value, I buy it. I must have "pirated" hundreds of games and
>various applications over the years. Most Ive thrown out after a week.

it is NOT your right, nor the software companies' responsibility, to
let people try their products! demos are released as a marketing
strategy to entice people into purchasing products. by your
self-righteous logic, you should never buy a box of crackers unless
the store has one of those stands with people giving free samples. and
yet you never complain then, do you? so remove those quotation marks,
because what you have done is indeed piracy, and would be like opening
a box of crackers before decidng whether to pay for it. usually those
people are referred to as jerks.

>Those I keep, I pay for. Namely Win95, Quake, Office, and a few other
>bits and pieces I use a lot. But I am NOT going to pay just to have a
>look at a program and decide I dont like it. That's what shareware is,

it is not your right to try things illegally and base your decision to
keep or pay on that. if the companies do not want to give demos, then
that is their loss, for not using an enticing marketing strategy. that
still doesnt change the fact that piracy is wrong and illegal.

>and most "pirating" is like illegal sharewaring. OK, I accept that it is
>illegal, but it's not as if I am "costing" them sales. I wouldnt have
>bought it anyway.

see, none of you ever get the point. it doesnt matter that you wouldnt
have bought it. the point is, you had no legal right to be using it.
just because you wouldnt have bought the box of Ritz crackers doesnt
mean you can open the box and eat as many as you want.

--
ceptor "at" keyway.net

Diablo Page - http://www.keyway.net/~ceptor/

Nothing is what I do best!