Liberating Software

In Creating Microtonal Music, the subject was raised as to the
philosophical stances for 'liberating' (i.e. pirating) software. I
have moved the discussion here.

After posting about a site that links to cracks/hacks/keycodes etc.,
Dave X posted:

> But you DID check it out, huh, Jon?

Yep, far enough to see the huge variety of cracks, warez, etc. Did I
do anything to unlock my demo of Cool Edit? No.

> I had the idea that the list maybe had some of us "po' folks" on
> it, who might decide to check out the Astalavista website.

Since I actually posted links to software that is, from the get-go,
*free*, I don't see the need for lack of money to be a reason to
steal software. Which is what it is. Question: did you pay for your
computer?

> I personally don't have a really huge problem with piracy of
> software.

That is unfortunate; other people do. As you've seen, there are
people on the list that write software as an occupation, as I have
done at times. I would like you some day to meet someone like that
face-to-face and ask them to give you their software for free, and
see what their response is.

> If Sytrillium has any brains whatsoever, they must realize that
> sending out a demo that contains the entire program, etc,
> and only needs a little code... jeez, I mean, technically, they
> ARE giving away the whole program for free.

For your evaluation. If you take a car for a test drive and don't
come back, do you think the dealer would mind?

> Also: I'm curious why it matters from which companies one pirates...
> some MMMers seem to feel that pirating is okay as long as it is
> from one of the bigger companies.

I have seen no evidence of this whatsoever. Would you care to quote
the message that an MMMer might have said as much?

Bottom line: I, myself, don't approve of software piracy, no matter
what the reasoning behind it. I am very well aware that it does
occur. It might be interesting for you to think more about why you
should just get the stuff for free. Most people who have labored hard
over something have a hard time seeing people rip off their efforts.

Regards,
Jon