Re: OMG!

["Sheldon Simms" <sheldon@interprice.com>]

Im Artikel <3af9a7de.94735064@news1.on.sympatico.ca> schrieb "Jeff
Blakeney" <CUTjefbla@bconnex.net>:


> On Tue, 08 May 2001 10:13:53 +0200, "Sheldon Simms"
> <sheldon@interprice.com> wrote:
> 
>>Im Artikel <3af7728b.214387240@news1.on.sympatico.ca> schrieb "Jeff
>>Blakeney" <CUTjefbla@bconnex.net>:
>>
>>> Now you tell me, is it better to buy a legal copy on the used market
>>> where the copyright holder doesn't get any benefit beyond what he got
>>> for that copy initially or is it better to download an illegal copy
>>> from the internet where the copyright holder has gotten no benefit at
>>> all?
>>It doesn't matter. In both cases the copyright holder has no financial
>>interest in the transaction.
> Are you seriously implying that it doesn't matter whether the copyright
> holder gets any benefit or not from their work?

No.

> In the first case I
> listed above, the copyright holder has received some benefit from that
> copy.  In the second case, the copyright holder gets no benefit at all.
> In other words, the copyright holder was paid for the first one, but
> wasn't paid for the second one.  The second one has been stolen.  Now
> which do you think is better?

It's better that the copyright holder get some benefit from the work,
of course, but in neither of the two situations above does the copyright
holder receive any benefit when *I* acquire the software. In fact, my
acquisition of the software in both of the above two cases not only does
not benefit the copyright holder, it doesn't even contribute to the
copyright holder's financial interest in general, which it would if I
bought a new copy from a store.

We're talking about a situation where I, the acquirer, would gladly
pay the copyright holder a reasonable price to use the software, but
that is impossible, because the copyright holder has no interest in
receiving payment. In this case, I will download the software rather
than pay some third party for a second hand copy.

-- 
sheldon@semanticedge.com  "The term (denotation t) denotes the object denoted
                           by the object denoted by t." -- KIF