Thomas E. Keiser on Tue, 28 Dec 1999 19:19:50 -0500 (EST) |
On Tue, 28 Dec 1999, "Mental" wrote: > Piracy is going to happen. It happens to music, software, you name it. > There are certain individuals who are _never_ going to buy things. > Its not a lost sale. They're not loosing money. Given the choice, these > are people who would never have paid money to begin with. On Tue, 28 Dec 1999 "Michael W. Ryan" wrote: >Just because piracy is going to happen doesn't make it legal, right, or >acceptable. And yes, it does cause lost sales. Pirates do not >necessarily limit themselves to a personal copy. If they can make a copy >for themselves, they can make a copy for others and sell it, at a cheap >price. And given a digital medium, you're not going to have the >degradation problems that you have with VHS/tape. So there's no motive >whatsoever to buy a legitimate copy. There's no denying that larceny is in the heart of the young -- they have yet to work and acquire things or create and sell things, so ripping off someone who has done either/both seems so morally proper -- "why should they have what I don't"? There's an unsavory and unsettling parallel here: to those who would like to spend the redistributed wealth of others and not have to earn it. Either way, the predictable result is the same: if work product cannot be protected by those who work, or, if property cannot be protected by those who acquire it, they will stop working, inventing, producing, and struggling -- leaving the rest of us far worse off. Bravo to you, Mr. Ryan for your response. Tom _______________________________________________ Plug maillist - Plug@lists.nothinbut.net http://lists.nothinbut.net/mail/listinfo/plug
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