webber@aramis.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) (07/23/88)
In article <826@dlhpedg.co.uk>, cl@datlog.co.uk (Charles Lambert) writes: > In article <1812@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes: < <... < <The answer to < <"is it ok to copy software" falls out of this, but it is at a different < <level. < < To which BOB said something like "if it's illegal, it's not OK." But that's < inverting the question, BOB. The question was "is is *moral* to copy < software," and the law should embody morality, not dictate it. Hardly. Knowing the morality of the typical legislator, I would certainly not ask them to use it as a basis for law. It is hard to imagine any country in which religious freedom is granted as being able to adopt the view that law will embody morality. It would be interesting to see some one argue that to abstain from copying software in a situation where it was illegal to do so would somehow prevent them from going to heaven and thus although they be martyred by the act, they would find themselves forced to copy other people's software illegally. You ask if it is moral to copy software -- I reply: is it moral to run a red light? ---- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber)
spector@vx2.GBA.NYU.EDU (David HM Spector) (07/23/88)
I agree with Bob. Morality should not be the driving force behind
copyright laws. Sure, "it's immoral" to steal someone elses work, just
like its immoral to rob little old folks of their life savings. (no, I am
not equating the two acts...) They are both "wrong" from an "ethical" point of
view, and wrong from a LEGAL point of view. "Ethical" depends very much upon
your point of view, "legal" is absolute. There are many people who think
nothing of stealing office supplies from their workplace, to them its not
"unethical", they can rationalise the act... but that doesn't mean its not
illegal. I know many people who can rationalise software theft. I even
met a couple of kids in a computer store a few years ago who were pirating
*MY* software. When I asked them if they though stealing someone elses
work was "wrong" they replied "no..", but when I imformed them that it was
also a federal crime, and that they might have to "pay" for it... their tune
changed. They hadn't thought that they were breaking the law.
Other people, including my office-mate insist that its the high price
of software that makes people rationalise that they can steal things.
(B.S. in my opinion..) I think that itself is a rationalisation. People
don't go out and steal cars from dealer showrooms (well most people don't)
just becuase cars are expensive.
We need really stiff penalties for software theft, and an education program
the really stresses that software is a tangeable assest that took someome
time and sweat to create.
Primarily the problem is that most end-users of software think that it either
writes-itself or automagically pops into existance.
(hmm... I am starting to ramble... time to get out :-)
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David HM Spector New York University
Senior Systems Programmer Graduate School of Business
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