I think a good majority of people who actually downloaded the pirated software would have never bought it in the first place. I don't see how a dollar figure could have been placed on piracy to begin with. If windows hadn't already come with every ibm based computer I have ever owned, I wouldn't have bought it. Why would I? It's inferior. The only reason I tolerate it is because the vast majority of programmers are so lazy they would rather use the windows specific visual cut and paste programming systems, than actually learn how to write their own code. One of my friends entire job involves him searching the web for pages that do what he wants, and taking the source, changing the comments (if he feels like it), and calling it his own.
As for the legality of what they're doing... Nobody forced anyone to download the software they altered, I'm sure for entirely legal research purposes, except the companies that charge far too much for their software in the first place.
I have issues with authority. I suppose that's obvious from time to time. Without something actually being stolen, I just don't see how it can be called theft.
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Date: 2005-05-07 08:58 am (UTC)If windows hadn't already come with every ibm based computer I have ever owned, I wouldn't have bought it. Why would I? It's inferior. The only reason I tolerate it is because the vast majority of programmers are so lazy they would rather use the windows specific visual cut and paste programming systems, than actually learn how to write their own code.
One of my friends entire job involves him searching the web for pages that do what he wants, and taking the source, changing the comments (if he feels like it), and calling it his own.
As for the legality of what they're doing... Nobody forced anyone to download the software they altered, I'm sure for entirely legal research purposes, except the companies that charge far too much for their software in the first place.
I have issues with authority. I suppose that's obvious from time to time. Without something actually being stolen, I just don't see how it can be called theft.
wwm.