On Sat, 2 Sep 2006 markring40 at ippimail.com wrote: > If someone is talented enough to be able to paint like Rembrandt and > copy one of his works and sell it as an original; most would agree that > there is theft and deception involved. > > If one were to reprint books by contemporary authors and resell them > without permission or licensing most would agree that too would be > theft. > > However when it comes to software many attitudes change about theft. > Whatever the intention stealing is stealing. Not really. Taking your examples, they apply to someone who does things such as making fake copies of MS Windows XP and selling them as if they were the original licensed copies. I haven't heard anyone comment that that might be OK. > I believe many of us have this attitude because software is ubiquitous. > We all use it, almost all day. Some of us even write little hacks or > snippets of code, therefore how difficult can it be to craft? The reason isn't ubiquity. Cars are ubiquitous but no one is saying that it is OK to steal cars. The reason is that software is digital and that in "stealing" it (your word, not mine) the original is left intact. If your friend had a magic wand that allowed him to produce an exact replica of your car, and he did that, would you say that he had stolen your car? Of course not. You still have your car. > Because it is everywhere if I illegally use just a couple *little* > programs no one really gets hurt. Larry shows us how that attitude can > cause real damage to people. No one is hurt by your use of a lot of really big programs either. > I'm not intending to moralize. Just pointing out that no matter how > much we might rationalize our unlicensed use of some software. It is > still theft and one needs to accept the consequences. But as others have pointed out, copying programs is entirely different from theft in the usual sense of the word. If I steal your car, you don't have your car and you have thereby been harmed. If I make a copy of one of your CDs, I don't believe that you have been harmed. If there is any harm, it is of an entirely different kind than if I simply took your CD away from you (i.e., stole it). Mike