[Ti] [OT} All this 'anti-piracy' stuff

[Michael Bigley]

>The companies that hide behind the RIAA, and abuse the DMCA, deserve 
>whatever befalls them, and if the users of Personal Computers wake 
>up one day [in the not-too-distant future] to find their every 
>movement restricted and/or, monitored, after siding with these lying 
>'whiners'...well then, they deserve their limited usage and lack of 
>privacy, also.

I agree that this is not a "black and white" issue.  Yes, the bottom 
line is stealing is stealing. However, piracy has benefits. As I have 
posted to this list before, big companies like M$ and Adobe complain 
of piracy, they tolerate a certain amount, as there is surely 
technology to nearly eliminate it if desired; but if they completely 
eliminate piracy, they open the door for semi-shareware or open 
source apps to eat away their market share.

One evidence of this is that Photoshop used to be licensed like 
Quark, in that it would search the network before launch to see if 
another copy of the same serial number was running. They eliminated 
that about the time that "Livepicture" (not sure of the name?) was 
making in-roads into Photoshop's market.  Surely there were other 
factors, but LivePicture no longer exists.

Janis Ian, among others, has written passionately and empirically 
about how peer-to-peer has increased the sale of her music. RIAA and 
DMCA in many ways are just as evil, morally and ethically, as 
stealing music. Two wrongs don't make a right... there needs to be a 
middle ground.  For example, I have bought thousands of dollars worth 
of music that is in a format that is no longer reasonably accessible 
to me. Am I stealing music if I paid for a cassette, 8-track, LP or 
45 (or maybe even a 78!!) of that song or album?
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Mike Bigley                Maineville, Ohio
       http://www.norbertrunning.com
Please support an American Indian Elder &
Medicine Man by visiting the above link.
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