Organization: Penn State University
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 13:30:20 EST
From: Chris "Slothman" Stoy <CMS129@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: The piracy argument to end all arguments....
 <1992Nov18.090412.19810@microware.com> <92324.153304CMS129@psuvm.psu.edu>
 <1992Nov20.140814.2560@cbnewsm.cb.att.com>

<a hole bunch of stuff deleted from last couple of articles>

Summary:  People are complaining about pirating.
I give an argument to help explain why people pirate
          People tell me why I'm wrong.

Ok, let's get something straight here.  Are we arguing about Adults who are
perfectly capable of going out and buying legal software but don't because they
want a free lunch, or are we arguing about a bunch of teen-age kids who have
no life but computers and think that pirating is REAL COOL(R)?

As for the people who pirate programs and use them in their work and make money
by using them, then they definatly should be locked up.  There is no excuse for
someone to steal when they have no need to.

As for the low-life pirate scum that does most of the pirating I see (ie, the
imature teenagers who think the world revolves around them), then the problem
is different.  Most of them don't know any better.  They think its cool to have
hundreds of disks filled with the latest copies of BLAZEMONGER (c) and try to
impress their friend with their huge software collection.  Most of these kids
realize when they grow up that this is a wrong thing to do.  However, we live
in a world were if you don't have the new copy of BlastoPuppies (C), then
you're friends don't like you anymore.  Of course you're going to get a copy of
it so that you can be accpeted by your peers.  If you don't have the money,
then you're going to get it another way (pirating).  90% of most pirates
"warzes" sits around collecting dust.  In the pirates mind, it is not justified
to spend $50 on a game that will just sit around and collect dust.  Hell, in
ANYONES mind it isn't justified (unless you have an ungodly amount of money you
just want to waste.  If that's the case, send it to me, I won't waste it!)

So, does this mean I support pirating? No. When I do get out into the REAL
WORLD(tm), I will be writting software and I would rather not loose money
because some kid had to impress his friends.  How can we stop piracy?  You
can't.  At best you can minimize it.  Piracy is just a manifestation of a much
larger social problem.   If parents don't care that their kids break the law
and take the attitude that "well, at least I didn't have to pay for it", then
there is no way that the kids who pirate will ever think that it is wrong.
Only by teaching people that it is wrong from the first time they bring home a
pirated game will they ever learn that it is just as bad as stealing a real,
physical object.

In my opinion, we will never see piracy die.  There are too many people who
don't care.  Whether piracy really has such a huge affect on the software
industry as the companies would have us believe is really the only issue that
can be debated.  People in general want something for nothing, and until that
attitude changes, we will always have piracy.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris "Slothman" Stoy |  DISCLAIMER: The views expressed within are not
cms129 at psuvm       |  mine but those of my pet hamster Gizmo. HE'S
cms129@psuvm.psu.edu  |  responsible for this! Blame him!        ^^^^
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Who's to blame? Sue's to blame!  What, don't you read the f*cking credits!!