Good grief, talk about changing the subject. My comment was based on
making SpinRite available to listmembers at no charge. I doubt anyone
here is stupid enough to think that SpinRite is not a readily available
commercial product.
"R. D. Davis" wrote:
>
> Quothe chris, from writings of Sun, Apr 13, 2003 at 08:35:55PM -0400:
> > but... shouldn't "pirating" be something that IS condoned on this list?
> > At least under the idea of "abandonware". After all, without some degree
>
> Definitely! If software is needed and no longer available from the
> manufacturer or other "legal" sources, then, why should it be
> considered wrong to duplicate it for others who need it? To not
> make such software available, in many cases, would mean that many
> classic computers would become unusable and we couldn't preserve
> them properly.
>
> > of software piracy, it is highly unlikely that a good chunk of the
> > hardware this list is interested in would have any useful software
> > available to it.
>
> Which is further proof that you're correct in asking your original
> question and should not be flamed.
>
> > I very much support the idea of abondonware, and I would think that idea
> > is very much in this list's interest. However, it is in many cases still
> > piracy.
>
> I like the position that DEC, and some other companies, took on
> computers being used by hobbyists who had illegal posession of
> unlicenced operating systems, etc.: "just look the other way... those
> hobbyists, who aren't costing us anything, and who can't afford our
> software now, may grow to like our products even more and turn out to
> be paying customers some day when they work for, or have, a business
> that can buy our software and hardware."
>
> --
> Copyright (C) 2002 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
> All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
> rdd_at_rddavis.org 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
> http://www.rddavis.org beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
Received on Sun Apr 13 2003 - 22:17:00 BST