Re: Morality and Pirated Software

Hi Paul and hwg;

Take a deep breath and wipe the saliva off your chin. I'm sure you can 
express your opinion without going into a rant. Everyone else here has and 
I'm sure you're no less mature.

>If you steal software, you are fundamentally a dishonest person because 
>you rationalized away the
>truth to fit your little private reality.

On the contrary, people who share files know exactly what they are doing. 
Due to different circumstances, whatever they may be, they've decided to go 
this route rather than pay an uncaring conglomerate more money than the 
software is really worth. I've heard many stories of people who simply 
couldn't afford the high prices of software then, when their fortunes 
turned, went out and paid for the software at a later time.


>Who knows what other things you
>can rationalize away? Fidelity?  Murder if it's justifiable to you?  Gimme a
>break!

Does this statement strike anyone as outright weird?


>I have had to defend our websites from thieves that stole images and text
>several times.  All I ever hear is that they thought the images were public
>domain, or they didn't know the webmaster "borrowed" the images.

There are a lot of people out there who don't know about copyright laws and 
how they work with the web. I sincerely hope that the tone you convey when 
protecting your copyright isn't the same as the one in your post.



>You just don't hurt Microsoft or
>Macromedia when you steal software.  You hurt the folks that came up with
>the ideas and wrote the code, the folks that did the packaging and shipping
>and even the lady that does payroll.

hmm....

If you mean I'm taking their payroll away by sharing a file with others who 
can not purchase their software in the first place, I think you may not be 
thinking it through all the way. If I share a file with someone who can not 
afford to buy it (and as such will not be giving any money to the company 
at any time) how is this taking money out of the company's employee's pockets?



>It wouldn't bother me so much, but I KNOW that most of the people that steal
>software can afford it.  I used to work in a computer store and it was
>pathetic how the majority of computer type people were into stealing
>software.  "Thats my shareware version of Word - wink wink."  Ya, drove up
>in a big SUV but you can't afford a word processor.  Last night you ate at
>la Chateux and today you can't afford software - right!

rant.


>If you really couln't afford the software, there's always shareware or open
>source.

Well now, here you have a valid point. If you can't afford Microsoft's 
Office, there is Star Office. A  completely free and very good bit of 
software. Somehow I think microsoft would hate this bit of advice as much 
as sharing their software.

Another choice is using Linux for your operating system instead of windows. 
Also free and very dependable.

There are also alternatives to Dreaweaver and Photoshop. They all come in 
as a distant second though. Both, Dreaweaver and Photoshop, are 
unfortuantely overpriced. I wish there was a quality free ware version for 
them. I'd write them myself but I'm into design and not developing :(.

Thomas
   mailto:trumley(at)softhome.net
   http://aboveboardlinks.com

HTML: hwg-basics mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA