Hi all,

When i started this thread, I did ask all of you about your opinion of the things I thought and now I thank you for your answers and participation in this.

We all agreed that copying and professionally using software without the proper licence is not acceptable. However I did not get the impression that my somewhat more flexible approach about licencing described in the main message (the last two points) was morally unacceptable under any circumstances by most of you.

I think we all know that piracy is a real problem, but the problem is more complex than you would expect at first sight. For instance, local laws may be conflicting with the license (thanks for your input Christof). If we are honest I think we all know that PC's at home often contain software without license. Though this is wrong, its all too common.

When I look at my past, i'd should say that I was just a part of this. When I was a student I've worked my butt off to get this 486 66 Mhz 8Mb computer. I did not have enough money to buy all the needed software so I took copies. Though I know this is unacceptable, I felt I didn't have much choice (just looking at the startupscreen is getting boring). Besides, when you look all arround you see all people do just the same. Yeah I guess I didn't have too much priciples, but you're influenced by your surroundings.

When we look at the music industry, its illegal to tape a song of the radio or commercial CD, But I'll bet no-one is ever convicted for breaking the copyrightlaws because they found a tape in his car.

When we look at foreign countries where the licensie violation or piracy is most accepted, you'll often find that these countries have a very bad economical situation. Making use of illegal software isn't a matter of greed or dishonesty but pure survival. If you make a (small) living out of developing programs and one license costs about $ 100,000 and every rival is using this software illegally you've two choices:
- Stay with your principle and starve to death
- make an illegal copy of the software
Who are we to convict this kind of piracy ??? I personally find it very hard to disagree with this kind of violation.

I've written an application for use in the Gambia, I don't know if they'll illegaly copy my product and frankly I don't care.

When I became a proffesional I found it MORALLY unacceptable to use software without license, now I was capable of affording this software. I said morally, because I dont care about what the law is saying about this. If the law say that I must write database apps with VB, I would be outlaw # 1. It's all about my own ethics.

Talking about moral and etics: I do find it morraly unacceptable that I cannot at least see for myself if just a piece of software is forfilling my needs. When I buy a car I can make a testdrive; when I buy a TV i can play with it in the shop i want to buy it. Though I know this cannot be done with software because manufactures find the risk of piracy too high, I do find software manufactures should offer a possibility to test software (maybe this is a hole in the martket: Professional software renting like in a videotheek). Their unwillingness or lazyness to supply any form of this kind of testing is in my opinion (by my own ethics) no excuse convicting me of this crime. An frequent remark is that: "then don't buy the software." If you really have no other satifying options and really feel that you need to try it, you'll have problem. Besides, by not buying this software I don't think this would make the vendor any more happy.

Another argument might be that a local law could say (like in holland) you could return a product if it does not do what you expected it should do. Though this rule is a bit vague, I think it could be applied to software as well.

But I do think more and more companies agree with this standpoint and supply demo and trial versions and are searching for other possibillities.

In these many messages I did note the remark that "trust, integrity and honesty is very important in our business". By my own ethics I totally agree. But if look at the real world we 'll certainly see that especially those unwritten rules are most violated by all (or at least a few) big software vendors which in their turn do expect we live to their rules. That's what I call hypocritism, but let me say this clear, this is not an argument to violate the licences.

What I find interesting, is that nobody did react on the statement that piracy has played and will be playing an active positive role in the use of computers and software development. It's funny we reject piracy but on the other hand we all have taken advantage of the fact that it does exist.

Besides the example I gave about the localized version, there are many situations where I doubt that the softwaremanufactures will have a problem violating the license, for e.g.:

I own one copy of MS Office which i may install on each computer I own, given the fact that I'm the only user of the software. When my girlfriend (or just a friend for that matter) comes in and says, "hey walter can I type a letter in Word ?", do i've to say "No you cannot because my license will not allow this." ? I think not. Though the license is mentioning this is not allowed, i can't imagine the software manufactures did ment to stop this kind of use.

In time i've learned that law and rules are just guidelines for your own ethics. If my girlfriend is really sick an needs to go to the hospital, I'll not say to her: "Just wait a little longer because I cannot break the speedlimit". IMHO, Breaking these laws and rules may be justified by the given situation you're in.

CONCLUSION: Software piracy is illegal and SHOULD not be accepted. Period. This does not mean we cannot have sympathy when a license is broken under some (extreme?) cirumstances, but I'll certainly rethink my own ethics with all the input you've given me.

One last call to Ed Rauh:
By just ignoring me here on the UT is not buying any sympathy and (by my own ethics:) does not prove of any professional behaviour. I strongly suggest to at least answer my last message to you and talk this out.

I've said everything I wanted to say. I'll stop participating within this thread because further discussion from my side seems to do more harm than it does good.

Regards, Walter