Philosophical Quandry: Piracy

[Jack Simth]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
OK I took the test, and they really need to work on it a lot.

Viruses I do suffer from:
1) Junk food---NOT (Unless beer is junk food)
2) Sci fi---Oh ya, they got that one.
3) Politics---yep I guilty there
4) Environmentalism---Perhaps, but then we get fined if we put the wrong kind of trash in the wrong color bin

I (might) suffer from:
1) Linux 80%---NOT EVEN close
2) Religion 60%---NOT
3) British 85%---NOT
4) Windows 75%---True but a low number
5) freeBSD 90%---True but way high. I guess it was because I kenw it at all.
6) Brand Names 65%---True
7) Hippyism 65%---NOT EVEN Close

I would say it was a test of how much media you have been exposed to.

All in all, it needs work. And perhaps their parents should seek a refund from the uni

So did I - It's definitely a test of how much media you have been exposed to. Some highlights from my results:

Linux
Install the latest Version of Microsoft Windows. Learn to love it.

Windows
Try MacOS X. It's based on UNIX, it has a smoother UI than Windows and it doesn't suck.
As an extra feature the boxes look nice.

Macintosh (80%)
Use a mouse with more than one button.

UNIX (60%)
Anything this old must be obselete. Go and install a nice modern operating system. I hear MSDOS has come a long way lately.

Do any of these seem slightly contradictory to anyone else?

[Phoenix-D]

The responses are designed to make whatever you have sound bad. So eventually they do contradict; there are only so many popular OSes.

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
The responses are designed to make whatever you have sound bad. So eventually they do contradict; there are only so many popular OSes.

Yeah, the jokes about your choices are a little contradictory. But the point is, even if you're not an active user, follower, luddite, whatever -- you still carry the meme. You recognize it. It is in your thoughts. They have you. And you don't even know it.

I recognized Che Guevara, and failed to recognize the symbol for anarchy. A guy at work was the reverse. It doesn't matter exactly what politics you hold -- just that a certain black outline was obvious. I don't think we have to stop careing, like the game suggests.

Many of the symbols were "Oh, that was on Star Trek" Purely ficticious organizations, yet I recognize their icon better than some real national flags.

Not that that's a bad thing, just shows how symbols propagate though a society, despite your best efforts to control your own mind.

Imperator, if don't copy any games, you will be happier at the end of the day. Or some other day. Or not. YMMV.

[Fyron]

There is also the possibility that the conversation is heading into a bad area and getting way too personal, and that he feels that it would be best for that conversation to end.

There is also the possibility that he has nothing further to say on a particular discussion, and so Posts nothing further about it.

[Will]

Hmmm... seems the test is only saying what you've been exposed to, and trying to somehow turn it into "You are an irredeemable X", X = whatever 'virus'...

So, apparently I suffer from:
Junkfood
Sci-fi
Religion
Southampton
Free BSD
Politics
Brand Names
Hippyism
Computer Games
Environmentalism

... and also possibly:
TotL
Linux
USA
8-Bit
British
UNIX
Discordia
X11
Conspiracy Theory
Macintosh

Ummm... ok... down the list. No, Yes, No, No, No, Yes, No, No, Yes, Yes, and No, No, I just live here, Yes, No, I'm starting to love it, Yes, what?, No, No.

There's a lot of 'No's there...

[DarkHorse]

Okay, I've spent all morning catching up on this thread after coming back from vacation, and I feel the irresistable urge to throw in a couple cents.

[quote]Originally posted by geoschmo:

~snip~ Moraltiy is absolute. Morality has to be absolute by definition in order to be morality. Otherwise it is merely opinion and it is useless.

Morality is not absolute, it is an informal convention formulated by a given society to reinforce what it generally deems to be beneficial behavior on the part of its citizens. Laws are typically the formalized quantifications of these moral ideas.
Right and wrong, legal and illegal, moral and immoral are all conventions of convenience designed to encourage socially beneficial behavior, and discourage antisocial behavior. If there were only one person left on earth, all ideas of right and wrong etc would become meaningless, because they are societal constructs that exist only to modify the behavior of individuals toward others.

As a man of science I am sure you understand the need to have absolute points of referance in order to make any sort of measurments. Without them all your measurments are useless.
Geoschmo

This isn't necessarily true. In a universe where everything is relative, there are no absolute points of reference, by definition. An object's weight, for example, is dependent on gravity. That same object's mass is dependent on its velocity; accelerate something close to the speed of light and it's mass approaches infinite. All mathematical and scientific measurments are relative. That doesn't mean they aren't convenient and useful, of course, but they are relative.

But anyway, back to the original question.

The question of software piracy is a legal, not moral, question. Legally, it is clear that if you copy software and distribute it, whether or not it is for profit, you are violating the Fair Use provisions of the relavent law. (EULAs are irrelevant, it is the law that counts. Congress enacts laws, not software companies.)

The moral question is whether or not to break laws, and which laws you may choose to break.

[Erax]

On the contrary, DarkHorse, I feel piracy is a moral question much more than a legal question, because legally it is largely unenforceable. We can do it (and get away with it), but the question is, should we do it ?

To bring back a somewhat relevant quote from Jurassic Park, "You spent all this money and effort to see if you could do it and never asked yourself if you should."