> It's not a matter of moral character (in most cases), it's a matter of people not knowing that it's illegal, much less wrong.

I think that's a common scenario. For instance, how many have heard others say that it's okay to copy a musical tape/CD for a friend, just as long as you don't profit from it? As one who is kind of into music, I've heard it a lot, and such copying is much more understandably illegal (in my mind, anyway) than software piracy.

>I don't know if things are different in Nebraska, if you just hang out with an unusual crowd, or if you are choosing to ignore evidence to the contrary for the sake of your argument, but you've got the picture _all_ wrong with regard to the prevalence of casual copying.

As a former consultant working with many clients, I would confirm this. "Umm, no, I can't copy the one license of Windows to all the machines."

"Really, why not? I mean, we've got the diskettes." (I was consultant back when diskettes were the rage. Helland wouldn't understand.)

"It's illegal ."

"Really? I didn't know that. Can we get a volume discount? Great, order however many copies we need."

The ones that said "copy it anyway" got fired from my client list.

Mike Stewart