Philosophical Quandry: Piracy

[Thermodyne]

It is wrong, anyway you look at it. If they want to test drive it, DL the demo or try it on your system. But let’s look at both sides of the coin. The license is a contract. When the game in question is bought and paid for, then installed on your system only, you have done your part, But then you find that it is damaged and in need of repair. Then after several free patches you get to buy an upgrade which is still damaged. And after several patches there are still some problems. Does the agreement still stand? I for one feel that I should be able to return my original SE4 CD and get my money back. Or that SE4 classic should be fixed once and for all. As should Gold. It’s a two way street. With anything except software, defective merchandise is a breach of contract. Why is software different?

[Fyron]

Geo, I was talking about on a cultural level, not an individual level.

[Gryphin]

It comes down to:
You agree to the EULA
If you violate the EULA you have gone against your word.
Going against your word is _____
(Fill in the blank. I am not going to say it for you).

[Erax]

Fyron and Geo : see my edit a couple of Posts back.

[Phoenix-D]

"If you really want, you can go make 150000 copies of your Windows CD. As long as you keep every Last one, Microsoft can not do anything to you."

But! The windows CD is a special case, since it has no copy protection. You're allowed to make backups, but not allowed to break the copy protection in order to -make- those backups. If that isn't a stupid legal problem I don't know what is.

And no, I don't consider violating EULAs to be breaking my word. Especially with the IMO immoral restrictions some have tried to sneak in- like "by opening this package you agree to the liscence agreement inside" Hello? I think not. Also, a few have tried to put "You may not give this product bad reviews" in their EULA..

[PvK]

I always have random strangers press the "I agree" buttons on my software.

[Thermodyne]

What about the software that came with your name brand computer. You follow the agreement and one day the system gets old and dies. So you get a new one. You wipe the old systems drive and give the whole thing to the GW. Then you try to install YOUR software on the new system only to find that it can not be installed. This is called a restricted license. I for one feel that you should be allowed to exchange that Version of the software for an open license unless you agreed in writing to the restricted license.

[PvK]

Maybe the "morality" discussion is suffering from different ideas of what the term means... or something.

I don't think Fryon meant that because human sacrifice was not immoral to many cultures, that that means it (or any "lesser" offence) isn't immoral for all cultures. Quite the opposite, it seems to me he was saying that each culture has different definitions of morality. In countries like the modern United States, there are many cultures at the same location, with very different convictions about what is right and what is wrong. Also in the US, some of us assert the right to decide for ourselves what we think is right or wrong, and to disagree with others about it.

The mistake, in my opinion, is to try to force everyone to live by the same culturally-based rules. Not that there shouldn't be such rules, but sometimes it's unwise to try to force all cultures to live by the same rules. Separation into countries with different laws and customs serves many purposes, and makes the world a much more interesting and hospitable place as a whole. Fortunately there is often enough common ground to agree on things like human sacrifice, however, though not always. I was told recently that killing unwanted daughters is still legal in India, for example.

PvK

[Slynky]

Originally posted by PvK:
I always have random strangers press the "I agree" buttons on my software.

ROFLMAO !

[Fyron]

Quite the opposite, it seems to me he was saying that each culture has different definitions of morality.

Precisely.