Re: Morality and Pirated Software

I have to admit that I'm pleasantly surprised by everyone's answer here. 
Not a flame among them and all of them well thought out and reasoned.

Here's my answer to you answers, and some may think I'm reaching here but...

" ....And copyright laws give the creators of such intellectual property 
the sole rights of reproduction. The person who buys the original software 
package has the right to use it for their own personal use, but there is no 
legal right to distribute copies to others."

I think this is the core of most replies that I got. That if I had 
surrendered the software that was given away, then there would be only one 
copy of the software still in circulation. Which was in parallel with my 
shoe analogy.

An even tighter interpretation is that I have no legal right what so ever 
to give my software to anyone. That I've acknowledged a licence before my 
first use of the software and that I should be bound by it in its entirety.

And this is the correct interpretation by law. This approach however, is 
what got Microsoft into the mess that it is now in. Microsoft demanded that 
anyone who included their windows product as part of a computer package 
must also include their IE web browser. In effect, they were saying that 
the end user must abide by their decisions to use the software. And if 
their decision was to bundle the IE agent with their windows operating 
system, then the user had no say in the matter. The courts have said they 
were wrong to do this.

The agreements that you are forced to accept before you can use application 
software runs along the same lines. In essence they are saying "Do what we 
tell you to do, use this the way we tell you to use it, use this only where 
we tell you to use it; and then you may use this software."

An agreement must be freely entered into by both parties. Neither party may 
be coerced into entering the contract. This form of contract is mandatory 
on the part of the end user, if he/she does not agree to all or part of it 
they can not use the program. Many of these licences are set up so that the 
program will not install unless you agree to them. Now you're thinking this 
is the only way to do it. The creator of a product has the right to do 
anything that they like with it.  A program is just a product after all. 
Lets change products and see if you still think of it that way.

Let's change the product to medicine. If you went to a pharmacy for a 
prescription, and were told that the only place you could get that medicine 
was from that specific pharmacy, you might  accept it. If you were then 
told that you were not allowed to look anywhere else for it to see if it 
was cheaper, would you still accept it? If you were then told, that under 
no circumstances could you give that medicine to anyone else, would it 
still be acceptable? What if you found out that the medicine was easy to 
make, that you could produce it on your kitchen table exactly as your 
pharmacist gave it to you. Say it's some drug that could make life much 
easier for many. Maybe open doors that they couldn't walk through 
previously; allow them to have a job that they wouldn't be able to have 
without the drug. You could help others by giving out the medicine, but it 
is illegal. The pharmacy owns the process for creating this drug and they 
charge high for it. So high that most people can not afford it. Is it still 
immoral to offer the drug to others?

It's just a product when you come right down to it. Just as "Photoshop" is 
a product. Just as "Dreaweaver" is a product. There are no situational 
ethics. You're either right or wrong.  If you say it is actually a case of 
scope, then your adjusting your sense of right or wrong depending on the case.

The web is meant as a forum for the free distribution and assimilation of 
information. No person or group of people should be allowed to hinder an 
individual's  ability to present their views. This includes limiting the 
tools that are accessible to them because of price.  This is just my view. 
A good one I think.

I'll stop talking about this now; I have to be way off the list's normal 
topic.  :)

Thomas

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