You have expressed my opinion exactly, Walter. I develop software for a living and for that reason do not pirate the work of others. Maybe that makes me old fashioned but I am comfortable with it. The creators of software, music, movies, etc. should be compensated for their work. If someone wants to put something in the public domain, fine, that's their decision. But it should be their decision, not that of thieves.

>Rick, though I truly believe your stance has absolutely valid points, I absolutely don't agree with any relations to any holy book or religion.
>Qouting parts of the bible here has absolutely no value as most people don't believe in whats written there or how you interpretate it. In stead you throw people off. So let us have the discussion outside the scope of any religion please?
>
>When I was a kid I copied a lot of MSX games illigally for my own use. Would i have bought the games if I could not get them in an illegal way? Absolutely not. Perhaps just a handfull out of the hundreds.
>
>OTOH, as a software vendor, I'm making a living out of selling software. I don't like to see people just copying my software and causing potential clients t use it illegally. It does not have anything to do with greed, but I also just need to make a living right?
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>Walter,
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>>>>Ah, yeah, the guy who insults us all by claiming we never had an original thought in our heads. Yeah, right.
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>>>I don't feel insulted, people can say whatever they like - I am not affected by what another says or thinks. However, I'm not sure he means you never had an original thought - I think he means that you are given an ability to think, or a skill to perform a task, and then its up to you how you use those skills. So you never originated/created your own skills but you might apply them in original ways. At least that's what I think he means.
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>>Continued from: Message ID:1569117
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>>I also state that God gives ideas to people (as well as their abilities). They are for His purposes, so that His will is accomplished. But they are those person's ideas, gifts from God to the person, original to them, unique in their application (when they are), but they still came from God.
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>>God is not hands off in our lives. He is not "watching us from a distance" as the popular song says. He is active and working continually to steer every one of us back to Him. Only those who don't want to hear Him wil reject Him. And only for those reasons. He's taken care of every other thing.