Piracy was Re: HH drives

From: Paul Berger <sanepsycho_at_globaldialog.com>
Date: Tue Apr 15 18:39:00 2003

On Mon, 2003-03-10 at 16:46, Lawrence Walker wrote:
> Why does this legalistic crap with high moral tone
> forever come up on the list. For the most part almost
> all old computer collectors are using programs illegally.
<snip>
> a thousand others sitting on a program which they won't
> put into public domain due to not giving a shit about the
> end user.

I usually take the extremely legalistic point of view to highlight to
people that the current system of copyright is broken, and only getting
more so to protect the interests of a few.

Whenever I catch somebody I know doing something that is technically
illegal I point out this fact most strenuous and let them know they can
get a criminal records, do jail time and receive millions in fines if
somebody takes offense at what they are doing. I will then suggest that
if they think this is wrong they should contact their representative and
suggest things be changed.

Most shrug, figure I'm a kook (probably right) and don't do a damn thing
... this is why things won't change.

> Why is there not an similar outcry about companies like
> Lotus or Borland that put out products that were obsoleted
<snip>
> companies it's tit for tat. Apple and a few others do the
> decent thing but they are the exceptions not the rule.

Borland has released some of their old dos compilers on their community
site, so I would not knock them too much. They sold off the rights to
many of their applications so I would not expect them to release them to
the public.

I'm hoping that the shareware type idea will come back with the rise of
open-source software creating new niches, and the big software companies
charging for support & updates. You don't want support, the software is
free, but if you want somebody to answer questions, you need to pay the
author something.

Regards,
Paul
Received on Tue Apr 15 2003 - 18:39:00 BST