>SNIP
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>So, Ed, one might surmise that your superior morals may not be what they appear to be at first blush.
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>On the one hand you abhor software piracy because it will cost the writer money yet on the other hand you go out of your way to cost these 'marketers' money.
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>I would say the even *you* have cases where things are not so black/white after all!
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Jim, in no way do I advocate theft. I do feel it's my right to waste the nickle of people who annoy me. And if you feel my position on software piracy to be a case of situational ethics, think again. I pay for my long distance service, just like anyone else, and if I ask a long distance provider to contact me, it's with the honest intent of investigating their services. If they want to call me on their own initiative at home on my dinner hour, or at the office, against my stated wishes (there's an operator at work they'd have to get past to reach me, I've uniformly requested to be pulled off long distance marketing lists, and interrupting my free time at home uninvited with a sales pitch is simply rude) I feel no obligation to make their investment of time and money worthwhile, any more than I feel obligated to look at every free CD that's mailed to me by J Random ISP or software vendor.

Or should I be obligate to try out AOL every time one of their CDs creeps in the door unrequested? Take a 'free' 3 month subscription to some magazine I have no interest in and risk incurring a two-year subscription obligation if I forget to cancel promptly? An interesting hypothesis - my refusal to consider or investigate these wonderful marketing ploys seem to represent a new category of theft...

It's up to you to determine if my motives are impure and my ethics are questionable. You're entitled to opine that I'm stealing from the LD vendor when I send their telemarketer away on a wild goose chase. Just like you're entitled to your beliefs on VFP's reentrance. You may believe whatever you like - it doesn't mean you're right. But keep plugging - you might be onto something!

>>Most of the time, the guy who calls initially is a random telemarketer. They get paid for each lead given to a salesman, so it costs the LD carrier something. The guy who calls back is normally a sales droid of some sort being paid on commission...and for them, time == money < beg >