What I see is this...
people go to a store to "buy" software but what they are really buying is not the software, they are only buying the right to use the software... so... what it comes down to is... it's not the software being stolen, it's the "rights" of use that is being stolen! The comparison of the Ferrari being stolen is not a viable comparison because when you buy a Ferrari you get a Ferrari not just a "right" to use a Ferrari!
Stealing is wrong, granted, software piracy is partly the fault of the companies because of the way they sell it to the public as "buy the software" when they should be saying "buy the rights to use my software". I know if I where to go buy a Ferrari its mine to do with as I want weather I sell the original wheels I replaced or what ever.
lets say someone has a company and buys a vehicle that anybody can use for company business, not a concern of the automaker but, if a company buys a piece of software that everybody needs to use for company business, the software company wants to make sure said customer also buys the right for all employees to use it just because they have separate work stations. Good thing they're not required to buy a separate vehicle for each employee to use (any ones blood pressure jump just now?) as this would cut across the grain of what we know and understand, just as the way software is sold/licensed.
Yes, there are thieves in the world of every kind. Some steel Ferrari's, some steel the right to use a piece of software. This is a part of life as we know it in the modern world and probably not going to change in my life time. But it's my opinion that a large part of this piracy issue is the fault of the software company’s terms of use policies that just don't fit the way society views purchasing. When we go to the store and buy anything we expect to own it. But when we go and buy software we're not aloud to own it in the way we think we should own it and this is what I see as the biggest part of the problem.
So what this brings me to is an understanding that software piracy is mostly because of the fallout of corporate greed and partly because of human nature to keep up with the Jones’s.
In the near future I plan on building a new PC and will probable use the same programs I use on this one that I plan on giving to my child. Do I see this as wrong? No! I did pay for it and I consider it mine. I see the requirement of replacing all of it for my future computer as ludicrous. I will not remove it because I want my daughter to experiment and learn to use some of it. She is a nine year old with downs syndrome and she tries to use Photoshop like her dad does. Will I keep it from her or help some over paid executive buy a third Mercedes so he has one more than the guy next door? I think not!!!
If that makes me a PIRATE than so be it!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
~~~FESTER~~~
