Software Piracy
Software piracy affects anyone who uses or owns a computer. IS THIS
YOU? I thought so.
All examples are fictitious. If an example somehow resembles a
real-life
situation (more importantly, your real-life situation)in any way, then
you better read all of these pages, because I'm talking especially to you.
Jeffrey uses his computer mostly for getting his information overload fix
on the internet. He writes email, restarts Netscape regularly, and also
checks alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc at least once a day for new programs he
can download or hoard for trading. (after he first reads alt.tv.x-files.)
After beating Myst in a day, Ellen's friend gave her a copy of Doom so they
could play against each other on a network. Of course, Ellen always wins.
Art was in the computer lab, fuming for having to wait an hour for a free
terminal. He decides to take matters in his own hands, and somehow copies
all of Photoshop(!) to disk for his home computer, never having to return
to the lab again. (He must have been *really*ticked off.)
For Tina's birthday, instead of that new Mitsubishi 300GT (very unreliable
car, btw, hot rod or no hot rod), her parents bought her a computer. It's
got all the latest whiz-bang add-ons and everything, but she doesn't have
any good programs for it. And no games to speak of. But that's ok, her friend
Tony down the hall has the same computer and is willing to copy all his
programs for her. Word
processing, a personal destop organizer, a graphics program, and let's not
forget Tetris, Doom, Myst, and Descent. Tina pays nothing. (For all we know, Tony may
not have, either.) Tina also has a modem. A few hours lurking on #warez
helps her find a stocked FTP site and tons of additional productivity and
anti-productivity
warez.
Of course, there is one drawback to filling up that new gig hard drive with
newly acquired pirated software, and that is that by copying or downloading
warez, YOU ARE BREAKING THE LAW.
But
why should I care?
Before you make up your mind, check out these links: