Re: Net piracy?

[rwifall@NMSU.edu (Richard Wifall)]

In article <304maa$e23@crl4.crl.com> dkl@crl.com (David K. Leikam) writes:
>     The "Theft is theft, plain and simple" argument strikes me as moronic. 
>   (I hope I'm really offending somebody, here.)  I have this friend who 
>   just bought a futon to replace his sleeper sofa. Problem, how to get rid 
>   of the sofa he doesn't want anymore, without having to haul it off 
>   somewhere? Easy. Put it out by the curb, and little elves come to take it 
>   away overnight.
>
>     By his actions, he indicates VERY clearly, he doesn't want the thing, 
>   he's abandoning it, please somebody come take it away.

	Since we are going into hypothetical situations, lets take
this one for an example:

	Your friend has his sofa out on the curb because he wants to
get rid of it.  Well his neighbor up the street has his sofa on his
curb because he doesn't happen to have room for it in his house right
now.  He is a trusting person and does not think that anyone will run
off with it in the middle of the night.

	Now the question is:  How do you "Mr. Elf" (aka theif, pirate)
know whether he is putting it out there to because he doesn't have
room or if it is because he wants it taken away?  Without a sign
(READ: permission) you don't know.

	Just because you can't find the owner of the software, and you
don't _think_ he cares about it does not in anyway reflect whether he
does care or not.  The author may in fact be using the algorithms, or
other important features in a program on a different platform.  So
while it may seem abandoned to you, it may not be abandoned at all.

(I won't go into property that is left in storage for an equally good
example of things that may seem abandoned, but in fact are not.)

	One thing that strikes me as interesting to point out is that
a majority of people who don't have a problem with pirating are
people who don't have a vested interest in something that is protected
by copyright laws.

	Maybe all the software authors should start requiring those
hardware gizmos to make their software run.  (Or figure out some way
to go back to the "Good Old Days" when people were honest and not
trying to rip someone off at every chance.)
--
Richard Wifall - rwifall@nmsu.edu - http://starship.nmsu.edu:6502/