Re: OMG!

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

Im Artikel <kOBJ6.20765$Aj1.8293996@typhoon2.ba-dsg.net> schrieb "Frank
Townsend" <ftownsen@iamdigex.net>:

> "Sheldon Simms" <sheldon@interprice.com> wrote in message
> 20010507.191249.841148365.13631@ip148.interprice.vi">news:20010507.191249.841148365.13631@ip148.interprice.vi...
>> If that is the case, then for unregistered software, damages would be
>> limited to actual damages, which would be nothing.
> Not so fast!  Damages have nothing to do with whether or not an item is
> available through commercial channels (ie, "on the shelf").  That is one
> way of establishing value, but there are others:  expert testimony,
> valuations of the work on the used market, etc.  Your own statements
> indicate that you would pay $2 for a legitimately available copy, so you
> have already impeached the credibility of your new argument that the
> value of a piece of Apple II software is $0.

The $2 is for documentation, and perhaps a sense of charity. As for
expert testimony, I imagine I could find plenty of experts who would
testify that the software has no value. Valuations of the work on the
used market are also not particularly informing, because it's not
clear that the market price of used copies has anything to do with
the function of the software, rather than collectable status, docu-
mentation value, etc.

> Furthermore, you and
> others have already argued that the software is so valuable that it
> would be a travisty if it were lost to posterity.  Which one of your
> statements is a falsehood?

I say that it would be a shame if the software was lost to posterity.
But that has doesn't have anything to do with the value of the software
in a monetary sense.

> Of course, the analysis you are making now is the same that a shoplifter
> or any other would-be criminal might make:  what is the liklihood that I
> will be caught, and if so, what is the worst that could happen ;-))

Or alternatively, the same as a civil disobeyer or any other would be
"criminal" might make: Is what I am doing worth the consequences I
might face under an unjust law.

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