posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 3:02 PM
by
thomasswilliams
Piracy as Accepted Practice
Sometimes I feel as if I'm one of the few who think software piracy is a bad thing. I know plenty of good people, that would not break the law in any way, that have no objection to buying or just coming across pirated software/DVDs. This is not a dig at those people (some of whom are good friends): I reckon people should do what they're comfortable with. It's just that, if something's illegal, and it actually hurts people in my industry (it could be me it's hurting), why would I want to do it?
Tejas Patel blogs about a similar feeling when he posts:
I was talking to my friends and their friends last weekend on piracy and telling them that buying licensed copy is a good thing to do. They laughed at me and said licenses are for office and not for home purpose ( Ofcourse I disagree).
I remember once talking to someone who had sold their boxed copy of some software. The conversation got around to whether or not they had taken it off their machine, and the answer was “Of course not. I paid for that!”
At that time I was in the business of writing software that someone would buy. I thought to myself then, that I wouldn't appreciate it if someone took stuff I had written and cracked it so users did not have to pay. That has definitely influenced my views on software piracy.
I don't feel like I'm taking some sort of moral high ground here. I'm just happy to pay for software and entertainment, so I can own it.