The problem with this is that you are totally ignoring
the owners rights in this.
You are treating a program like physical property when
it isn't. It is Intellectual Property.
If you do not purchase a license from the author to
use his work, you are not entitled to own it.
Whether you have made a copy so that nobody else is
deprived of their copy is immaterial.
Something is lost by him/her. His/her rights to
control the distribution of his/her work.
If you don't want to buy it, then you shouldn't have
it.
If you say "F" you, I'm going to take one anyway...
What's the point in having copyright/ownership laws?
If the laws aren't used, respected and enforced..
eventually people will decide not to create cool stuff
because most people will "copy" it (and in your
concept, since they won't buy it anyway... No harm is
being done...), and the author will recieve little to
no compensation for his work.
So, those people will decide to do something where
they will get paid.
If you consistently rob a store, eventually it will go
out of business, and you won't have anything to rob
anymore, not to mention... Actually buy something you
need....
So there is HUGE harm in stealing software by copying
it. Most pirates won't admit to it, because then
they'd have to admit they are bad people, stealing
from someone/everyone...
This is all elementary business/copyright law. Not an
opinion. It's the basis of all copyright law.
Regards,
Al
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Received on Fri Jan 17 2003 - 21:40:39 GMT