Philosophical Quandry: Piracy

[rdouglass]

I dunno' but to me it's pretty simple;

If you take something - anything! - without the owners permission, its stealing. Whether that be physical or intellectual property.

When you buy (or license) something, you now have the (original) owners' permission to do only what was agreed upon during the exchange of monies, goods, or services.

Anything else is stealing.

And to all those thinking that an EULA may not be legally binding, think again. Notice in most, if not all, ELUA's they state something to the effect that if you don't agree to the EULA, then return the S/W for a refund. I'm no lawyer but AFAIK that has always held up in a U.S. court of law.