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From: scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: all copy protection
Message-ID: <293@l5comp.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-Jul-87 02:10:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: l5comp.293
Posted: Fri Jul 10 02:10:08 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 13:55:45 EDT
References: <1303@crash.CTS.COM> <593@madvax.UUCP> <1813@vax135.UUCP>
Reply-To: scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner)
Organization: L5 Computing, Edmonds, WA
Lines: 52
Summary: Pirates are thieves but not that kind.

In article <1813@vax135.UUCP> cjp@vax135.UUCP (Charles Poirier) writes:
>I just don't understand the logic of this.  Pirates are thieves.
>Typical, smirking, self-centered thieves.  Thieves are not motivated by
>social ideology.  They are motivated by getting something valuable at
>the expense of others, preferably without getting caught.  Oh sure, all
>thieves have some thin excuse with which to salve their self-image.

Thinking like this is what keeps this whole issue of software makers vs
pirates alive.

The software companies have to make the pirates look real bad so they don't
look bad when they put traps into their software. Or give us less for our
money "We would have done more, but we had to stop and put in the copy
protection".

The fact of the matter is that Pirates ARE thieves, but they are NOT criminals.
They are ordinary humans, they don't slink around smirking or being self
centered. They are no worse than all the people who drive 65 in a 55 zone.
It just goes back to human nature, and a key to that nature is: "Don't make a
rule that people won't obey". Humans only take to rule by two means:

1. When it makes sense, everyone will agree you shouldn't stand up and yell
"FIRE" in a crowded theater.
2. When forced by threat of violence/force. Don't pay your taxes and the IRS
will come by and take it anyway.

For alot of people item 1 doesn't apply for all sorts of reasons. Like maybe
they were burned before...

And there haven't been any people subjected to #2 that everyone can see as a
good reason.

So, either we hang someone for pirating software or the software firms have
got to make it make sense to people to obey the law.

Or the people have got to change the law. After all, software isn't "real",
everyone understands a horse thief. People grok the concept that if you
steal the horse the person owning the horse will be deprived. But as we all
know, copying a disk doesn't mean instant deprivation to the owner of the
software. Cable TV is the same, people can't see that they are "stealing"
anything. And people always have the option of saying "It isn't against
the law! We've had enough!"

Users can be made to understand that pirating software DOES hurt people, just
like if they went and stole a person's horse. BUT software companies have
got to realize that users are not around just for them to take advantage of.

Scott Turner
-- 
UUCP-stick: stride!l5comp!scotty | If you want to injure my goldfish just make
UUCP-auto: scotty@l5comp.UUCP    | sure I don't run up a vet bill.
GEnie: JST			 | "The bombs drop in 5 minutes" R. Reagan
		Disclaimer? I own L5 Computing. Isn't that enough?