Author: Uri Blass
Date: 21:36:43 09/30/02
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On September 30, 2002 at 23:41:41, Stephen A. Boak wrote: >Uri Blass wrote (two separate postings, snipped): > >>>>It is illegal but the difference between it and stealing is >>>>that in stealing there is always a victim and in this case >>>>if the user does not want to buy the software in case >>>>that he cannot get it then there is no victim. >>>> >> >>I understand the point but there is still difference between it and what is >>considered to be stealing by all people. >> >>In stealing someone is losing from it relative to the case that it is impossible >>to steal. >>In software piracy it is the case only in part of the cases. >> >>Uri > >Uri, you are struggling very hard to justify something that is morally & legally >wrong. I did not say that it is justified. > >Me thinks he doth protest too much--for _some_ reason. I don't know why. > >By your analogy (reductio ad absurdum), if a person doesn't want to pay for >something that belongs to another person/company but instead simply takes it, it >is morally & legally not stealing because there would not have been a 'sale' >anyway. No If the second person could use it then there is a clear demage. If you steal something like food other people could probably eat it or sell it. You can say that maybe the store could not sell it to other people but this is not something that is dependent on your intentions. >This amounts to: my intentions were never to pay for it, so if I take >it for nothing, no sale was lost, no victim exists, and I am _right_ that it is >morally justifiable! > >I think taking a copy of movei program (first commercial version) would be >great. I can use Uri's own argument to justify it! Only if you never planned to pay for it. The problem is that in part of the cases people use illegal programs that they planned to pay for them in case that they could not get them for free and there is a demage. I have legal rights against you if you use an illegal copy of movei but I do not likw calling your action stealing because I think that there is a difference between it and stealing when there is no doubt that there is a victim or that you could expect a victim from your actions. Uri
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