Re: Net piracy?

[rwifall@NMSU.edu (Richard Wifall)]

In article <306ev5$jko@bmerha64.bnr.ca> jeffr@bmerha2a.bnr.ca (Jeffrey Robertson) writes:

>   complexity (due to memory size) -- forget it.  They only value of the
>   program is for itself, not for the techniques behind it.

	Thats interesting, considering you can patent computer
algorithms.  I guess the government doesn't agree with you.

>   Again, this all comes down to the nature of copyright law.  It's up to
>   the holder to enforce it.  To use this silly couch analogy, leaving the
>   couch on the sidewalk is _not_ abandoning it.  Not complaining when it's
>   stolen _is_.

	So its ok for me to walk into the local grocery store and
steal whatever I can manage as long is they don't notice?  That _is_
what you are saying.  Pardon me for disagreeing with you  (since you
seem to take offense to that) but stealing is wrong whether you caught
or not. 

>                 This differs from the "real world", where police and
>   insurance companies would look at you funny if you left valuable
>   possessions in your front yard.

	So what if they look at you funny?  That doesn't make it right
for someone to steal your possesions off your lawn.  Now in the
software world there aren't many places you can put a piece of
software that isn't "out on your front lawn" where anyone who wants to
can come by and make a copy.  (Let me remind the reader that the
couch analogy was not mine.)

>   P.S.
>   >(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.)
>   Now that's just being silly.  Try to stay serious if you want people
>   to listen to your points.

	Actually, it was a subtle jab at the creator of the couch
analogy showing just how ridiculous his abandonment comparison is.

>   >	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.)
>   Well, depending on how you look at it, piracy and/or software protection
>   killed the Apple II (among others).

	Its funny that you would claim that piracy killed the Apple II
when you support piracy.  (But I guess not everyone who reads this
newsgroup likes Apple II's)

>                                        The kind of pirating I'm talking
>   about won't hurt people though.  At any event, a return to copy protection
>   would be a Bad Thing (tm).

	All software piracy hurts someone.  For a second why don't we
ignore the abandonment arguement and see just who else might be hurt
by piracy other then the copyright holder.  Say John Doe bought Ultima
V. a few years back.  He doesn't have an Apple II anymore so he
decides that he'll sell it.  Obviously if pirating of discontinued
software was allowed to run rampant he wouldn't be able to sell his
software for anything since people could get it free.  On the other
hand if piracy was not rampant he might command a very high price
because of the scarcity of his item.

>   Jeffrey Robertson                    |  jeffr@bnr.ca  |      BNR, Ottawa

	This whole thread has really disheartened me tremendously.  I
figured if there was one place that people would understand the value
and purpose of copyright laws that it would be in the Apple II
community where software is so scarce.  I guess there aren't many
places in the world left with morals.
	I can see one of the reasons why programmers have left the
AppleII community and I wonder if I shouldn't do the same.  At least
on the IBM and Mac you can still make some money on a program despite
all the piracy.   (Granted they aren't as much fun as Apple II's, but
something has to put food on the table.)

	Richard Wifall

PS - I hope the person that ran the cassandra archive gets fried.
--
Richard Wifall - rwifall@nmsu.edu - http://starship.nmsu.edu:6502/