Quote:
Originally posted by Podmore
That is <i>such</i> a rationalization. Any time you take something that doesn't belong to you, it's stealing. The fact of the matter is that a LOT of people who steal software would find a way to pay for it if they had to. ANd you know what? If everyone who used it paid for it, it would be cheaper for all of us. Piracy drives prices up, and there's a lot of evidence to that fact.
People who create things have to make an investment to do so. It really sucks to use their creation without paying them for it. I don't see how you can justify it.
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so, say you see a one hundred dollar bill, or even a five dollar bill lying around on the gutter, if you pick it up, is that considered stealing?
Or a perhaps a bit of paper?
Or finding a really useful document on the internet that you decide to save for later on (even though the author has in no way given you permission to download it?)
Or knocking off a brand new Porsche or Ferrari? (Hell, even a Datsun 180B)
there are degrees to stealing, and stealing a
copy of an infinitely re-copyable item doesnt rate that particularly highly in my book.
You say that piracy is directly correlational to cost. In order for this to occur, a critical assumption has to be fulfilled:
MS can make too much money, and will do something to reduce the amount of money they make.
Think about it. Lets say that tomorrow, magically, every single person repents thier evil ways, and decide to go legitimate. All of a sudden, MS is going to have a massive influx of cash, resulting in greater profits. In order for the price of thier software to go down, subsequently, MS would be required to cut the initial price of their software, which would result in less profits. A representation:
(n.b. this is a simplified model, assuming that MS regularly releases products, and everyone buys said products... Just to be used for illustration purposes only)
1) 1st Quarter, everyone goes legit, and microsoft records a massive increase in profits. Share prices skyrocket.
2) 2nd Quarter, MS drops prices, and due to this, lose billions of dollars of profit (a $50 dollar loss over twenty million users, lets say). Share prices tumble, because markets operate on speculation, i.e. growth/diminishment of profit, not actual profit.
So, MS loses a ton of money, and additionally, thier share prices tumble. Do you think its likely for MS to do that?