lauren@Rand-Unix.ARPA (04/16/84)
In the long run, teaching children about "software ethics" might do some good. I doubt that it will cure the problem though -- we've (theoretically) been teaching people not to steal for many, many years! The difference, of course, is that (I hope) most people who steal software wouldn't dream of stealing a candy bar. Somehow they see something that exists physically but can be easily duplicated as being something for which it's OK not to pay. A similar sort of logic has been applied to drug abuse -- the argument implies that only through education and living condition changes can drug abuse be controlled. Certainly Joe Friday hasn't done much good with his techniques. My guess is that software piracy will continue at high levels indefinitely, until eventually reasonable technical solutions, that can deal with 99% of the problem, will be worked out. All of the ideas currently in use (copy protection, etc.) are half-baked and pretty much useless. I can think of several reasonable solutions to the technical problems, but they are all too expensive to implement using current technology. --Lauren--
dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (04/23/84)
I have noticed that when someone says "immorality", more often than not he or she actually means "sex." Perhaps "so-and-so is immoral" can usually be translated "so-and-so is getting more than I am." Now, if we lump together sex and larceny and call them both "immorality" we're running the grave risk that once puberty arrives and sex is discovered for the fine thing it is, all aversions to "immoral" behavior of whatever species will evaporate (except, perhaps, the common taboo against doing it too publicly). I am therefore inclined to blame at least part of the crime problem (including software theft) on the casting out of baby with bathwater when our Moral Leaders have not seen fit to distinguish between the two. Likewise, if you mislabel "etiquette" as "courtesy" or lump them together under "manners" you invite the demise of both. Someone who has discovered that choosing the proper design of fork for disassembly of lobsters is not likely to get discount admission into the hereafter may toss out courtesy (the concern for the rights and feelings of others) along with etiquette (the concern for the rights and feelings of Emily Post). So in the course of imparting ethics to kids, maybe we should make it clear what's really rotten and what's just Not Done. We also, I hope, could discourage the now-widespread notion that anything is OK if you Don't Get Caught.