[Gllug] Piracy.

[Rev Simon Rumble]

On Tue 04 Mar, Pankaj Mathur bloviated thus:

> Well it is not exactly stealing as you've amply proved with your example but it
> is still unethical behaviour. Demonstrating mere misfit with definition of
> "stealing" does not really justify such actions which can hurt OSS developers as
> well.

The Coke analogy is actually different in other ways too.  Coke are in
the business of selling overpriced sugary drinks, which have input
costs.  These input costs are not impacted if I were to "copy" the
Coke with my own raw materials.

The key difference here is that software is based on an artificial
scarcity.  You, theoretically, don't have access to the product unless
you buy it, but the duplication costs are negligable.  So essentially
the "crime" being committed only because our society has decided to
allow a business model to be built on an artificial scarcity.

-- 
Rev Simon Rumble <simon at rumble.net>
www.rumble.net
Send email with subject "send key pub" for public key.

hink: In which world is speech most free: 

1) A world where you can send single personal messages to anyone, but
can't send multiple copies of the same message to people who haven't
authorized you spending their resources that way. 

2) A world where you only can send messages to people who have
explicitly authorized you to do so.

If we win the fight against spammers, we get world 1. If we lose, we
get world 2.

- Per Abrahamsen on slashdot
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