foust@gumby.UUCP (08/11/85)
I enjoyed Purkiser's last posting - he admitted he possessed pirated software. I am not in support of pirated software, etc., but he was one of the few who would admit it. .fl on WHY WILL SO FEW NET PEOPLE ADMIT TO OWNING PIRATED SOFTWARE? .fl off I would really like to hear other rationalizations of software piracy. This is an invitation to both pirates and preachers: For the pirates, how do YOU justify your theft to yourself? For the preachers, this is a great chance in studying how to convert people, and teach them not to steal. What are the best ways to convince people to stop stealing? I think my reasons (read: rationalizations) for having stolen software are similar to his. I'm in college, and my budget keeps most packages out of reach. However, I have also purchased packages after I had pirated versions. I don't think this is so strange. Pangs of a guilty conscience, I am sure. -- John Foust "I used to be disgusted, but now I'm just amused"
Elefante@RADC-MULTICS.ARPA (08/13/85)
> I would really like to hear other rationalizations of software piracy. > This is an invitation to both pirates and preachers: > > For the pirates, how do YOU justify your theft to yourself? > For the preachers, this is a great chance in studying how to convert > people, and teach them not to steal. What are the best ways to convince > people to stop stealing? This struck a familiar chord with me, yet it is with trepedation that I submit a response in this arena because some might consider it out of place. On the other hand, I think it will surely hit the nail on the head for many who are boggled by the software piracy issue. As a young lad I accompanied my father to a hardware store because he needed to buy a tool of one sort or another. While he was talking with the proprietor, I carefully slipped what I considered to be a particularly appealing carpenters' retracting tape measure into my pocket. Good sleight of hand, I thought, until that tape measure dropped through the large hole in my pocket, shot down my pantleg and crashed to the floor. Not too many years later, as a daffy new driver impressing my friends, I piloted my '54 Buick over a damp municipal golf-course green one evening in a way that would tear up the sensitive turf. My friends and I got away scot free, deriving a thousand laughs from our stupidity. Long after the memory of my golf-course escapade had faded and I had evolved into a middle-class homeowner, I awoke one morning to find that some birdbrain had used my yard as a skidpad, leaving some deep, nasty tire tracks sculpted in my brand new lawn. Such an event would normally send one into an emotional spasm, but the instant I saw the damage, I had a flashback to the golf-course incident ten years earlier and a tense, knowing smile simultaneously came to my lips. I never even had a chance to get angry. Coincidences? That certainly seems reasonable until once gives some serious consideration to whether or not an explanation of "coincidence" is any explanation at all. I've now spent the last fourteen years or so doing some heavy personal experimentation and observation of myself and others. It turns out that there has been lots of philosophical thought in this area spanning the centuries, so I haven't blazed any new trails, but my unequivocal findings have been as follows: 1. When "they" say you can't get something for nothing, "they" mean it. 2. One who adopts high ethics out of guilt, fear, intellectual or social considerations can't hold a candle to one who has adopted them out of recognition that the quality of his or her daily life is at stake. It's called survival. 3. Proof of the connection between high ethics and the quality of one's daily life can be gained through some patient experimentation, introspection and observation of others. Just making intellectual connections is not enough. The connections have to be "real" in a fundamental sense. Based on what I now know I can say this: if you don't KNOW FOR SURE that stealing software or anything else is detrimental to the quality of your current life, then you may have to steal to find out (or if you're perceptive enough to tune in to what has transpired in the past, you may be able to STOP stealing to find out). If you need to do it the hard way, do it with your eyes wide open with the expectation that you have some real adventures and revelations in store for you. There is no need to harbor any guilt, for if what I have found to be true for myself and others is universally true, you will definitely be making restitution. Pay particular attention to unusual events which deplete your finances or deprive you of your freedom in some way (and I don't mean anything as directly obvious as lawsuits or jail sentences related to stealing). If you do pay attention, the events will stick out like a sore thumb. You will find that natural law continues to work quite naturally, but it also speaks to those who listen. I disavow being a preacher of any sort, caring to convert anyone from anything to anything else, working for a software company, or being a social activist of any kind. I'm just a guy who has developed a healthy skepticism of those who say something can't be known, and have found it highly advantageous to live with my perceptual eyes open. Don Elefante