andro

Stealing your copy of Windows XP or Adobe Photoshop has nothing to do with freedom or Free Software.

It has everything to do with theft. Whether or not you think it's ok to commit theft, or choose to commit theft, is up to you.

King

I agreed. Although I would look down on someone more if they stole a $1 chocolate bar from the corner store than if they stole XP, even though XP is hundreds more dollars hahah.

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Mad_guy

That doesn't make much sense.

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Booooze

Touch Topic, havent read the whole, but Im going post anyways.

I have pirated software, I admit it, I download music and the lot. I do it without even thinking. It's not the same as physically taking or stealing something. Everything in this world these days isn't free. Making money is brual because of taxes, and buy the time most of us get by living, we barely have money to sepdn on toys. Tkae for instance a movie is $20. You can watch it once, twice and over and over, and eventually you will get bored of it. I'm like that. I hate to say it, but I'm not going to go out and buy a $60+ video game, when I'll play it for about an hour maybe 2, and I probabyl won't go back to it. Sometimes I download like crazy, nbot because I want to play something, but because I for some reason have an addiction to collecting stuff. Since it's free in the open, and it only takes virtual space:p , I collect alot. On another note, if I do really like something I download, I will support the author and buy the product, but I'm sorry Mr. Gates, I ain't paying $150-$200 for your software that breaks every other day. And I sure as hell ain't going to pay $1500+ for your programming software, when all I want to do is try it out, and learn from it. Anywho, Those smucks down at MS get paid more in a month than some of us do in a freaking year.

Geez I hope no feds or cops read this post, and if they do, I hope it's the ones that wanted me to help them with there dowloading problems

Anyways, peace.

Jimbo

First off, the required humor.

Copyrights were created for a reason. As things stand, it's a law (regional though it may be). So is killing people. Don't break the law. That's called criminal activity.

Sharing isn't natural. Sharing is an acquired habit from our society. Natural would be keeping your stuff for yourself. And your statement implies that antisocial behavior is unethical. That just ain't true, sorry to burst your bubble. Ethics don't come into play with sharing; that's just being nice.

Great. But don't take away a party's (by this I mean an individual or a company) right to charge for their product as they see fit. It's their stuff, they can share it according to their terms.

Good for you. Have fun with your creations. If I ever hire you, I'll remember that you don't need a paycheck, since you've already got sufficient reward.

It's available for public purchase, not for public distribution. The whole point of commerce is that people pay for stuff.

I agree with the idea of single-purchase, unlimited personal use. However, personal use starts and stops at a single customer. Enterprise licensing I have no problems with. But saying that one person can purchase software, and then distribute it as they see fit... hell, you can buy Vista (or any other proprietary product), and then give it away to the rest of the world for free. Nobody'd mind that, right?

I'm happy for you. But I'm not you. Neither is anyone else. And we don't all want/need the same stuff, nor do we all think the same way or have the same ideals.

You hit the nail on the head. Glad I'm not the only one thinking that way...
Exactly. Free Software is Free Software. Proprietary products are not necessarily Free Software. Those that aren't weren't meant to be. Don't try to change that.

I'm making bux using free software. You can refund me for all of my non-free software. Credit cards not accepted (sorry, don't use paypal) :p

That's not to say that I'm not a hypocrite either. Most of my music is downloaded. Unfortunately, it's really hard to come by, and what I've found is not in my budget at the moment. Once I can afford it, I hope to change that though. I have no pirated software (I have in the past, though it was several years ago), but I have stretched my MSFT licenses pretty thin. I have no excuses for that. It wasn't right. But I'll live with the consequences... hopefully...

Indigno

Dear God. I think I love you right now for posting that article.

Of course it's theft. And since software piracy law is totally set in stone that means that it's wrong. When slavery was legal, it was wrong for black people to be free. And if a black man drank from a white man's water fountain, he is unethical and immoral. But because these laws are so totally set in stone, they never change, and it will always be wrong.
Listen, as it has been stated before, not many people here are especially upset about people stealing crap software like windows and office. What I really hate about the TOS is that you have to do whatever is said in that liscence. What if books came with a liscence that you had to sign before you read it that said that my no means can you share this book with anyone or make folds, notes or marks on any of the pages of youre property, would that be fair? Some thing with software. It's your property and you should be able to do anything you like with it short of assault, plaigarism, and rape.

Jimbo

If that's what gets you off.... :p
Just wanted to point out though:
It wasn't necessarily Microsoft. And I'm sure that even if it was an employee, that it wasn't a company sponsored activity. Why would Microsoft worry about squeezing out $400? Hell, they blow way more than that on less important things

mikaoj

Everybody is doing it, almost.

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Heh.

lectricpharaoh

Personally, I feel it's wrong, but generally so far down on the scale of bad things so as to not be a big deal in many cases. I don't play an awful lot of games (and those I do play, I own), and as far as pirated applications go, I can only think of a couple that I've got. Pirated music is probably what I have the most of, but at about 1.5 gigs of MP3s, most of which are songs I own on CD, I consider myself to have a relatively small volume of pirated music.

That said, there are other factors. For example, here in Canada, the government instituted a 'blank media levy' which supposedly is used to compensate copyright holders (of musical works only, if I remember right). Since at least 90% of the time I buy blank CDs/DVDs, it is for either a) backing up large volumes of data, or b) school projects, it seems unfair that I (along with everyone else in the country who buys blank media) am presumed guilty. This makes me more likely to pirate material; after all, if I am being preemptively fined for it (call it a tax, fine, levy, whatever), I may as well do it. While some may see this as rationalization or justification, I wouldn't be surprised if many feel as I do.

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andro

If Microsoft products are such "crap" in the first place, why are you stealing them to use them instead of using a free/less expensive/better alternative?

Just because you might view a piece of software as "crap" still doesn't excuse you for stealing it.