On Friday 27 July 2007, Richard Lynch wrote: > > Understood. I simply want to lay to rest the idea that piracy is > > "somehow OK" because it's getting back at the big boys, who "can > > afford > > it anyway". Piracy also hits hard-working individuals, to whom the > > loss > > of income usually does make a difference. > > Piracy does not hurt the big boys in the least bit. > > They simply jack up the price for honest folk. > > You're only stealing, yes, Larry, actual money :-), from hard-working > individuals who pay MORE for their legit copy when you pirate. > > That is the end effect. > > That is why it really IS theft. If "indirectly affecting the market so that prices change" counts as stealing, then Coke and Pepsi build their business models around stealing from each other. Apache/PHP/MySQL are then "stealing actual money" from Microsoft, because they reduces sales of Windows, IIS, Visual Studio, and MS SQL Server. Great, so that means we should shut down Pepsi to stop them from stealing from Coke, and shut down PHP to stop them from stealing from Microsoft! I would say that shows just what pathetically laughable bullshit that argument is, except that Microsoft has made it publicly before, albeit phrased as "defending capitalism". You see why I find it so offensive? -- Larry Garfield AIM: LOLG42 larry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ICQ: 6817012 "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it." -- Thomas Jefferson -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
