But if you talk about other issues like over priced farming seeds or meds this becomes kind of ugly.

Last comment from Microsoft I read: “We lowered the price recently.” Ha Ha

Interesting discussion and great site!

As Ryan said, all I am saying is there is a difference, I’m not trying to justify piracy, quite the opposite. I just think the way the copyright holders have gone about trying to deal with the problem has been largely ineffective.

I found it amusing when an official Dell technician told me to turn windows update off because it caused problems and infected my friends computer with viruses.

He also installed a cracked version of Vista even though we had a license stuck on the bottom of the notebook.

That there’s a difference between stealing a thousand MP3s and stealing a car doesn’t make stealing a thousand MP3s guilt free – it just means there’s a difference.

This argument that ethics is based on tangible widgets is old-fashioned. The key question is whether someone has labored to create something of value and someone else has robbed them of that value. Ask yourself what will happen if most people steal creative product – then who will bother to create anything?

When someone installs your piece of software without paying for it, you still have your piece of software and all of the rights to it. A majority of people still pay for it. It just means that person has gained something and in all probability you don’t even know they have it.

I am not saying that I think copyright theft is by any means is OK. But the way the copyright holders have gone about trying to get people to stop is totally wrong. The argument that stealing a CD from a shop is the same as downloading it just doesn’t work for most people, for the simple reason that the shop paid for that CD and can no longer sell it if it is taken from a shop.

Also in many media’s (admittedly generally not software), it has taken them a huge amount of time to come up with any type of acceptable alternative to piracy for many of us. Movie & TV Show companies are still a long way away from this.

I really can’t wait until ubuntu gets that little bit more user friendly then I will start the migration.

Although I don’t use pirated software anymore, I have absolutely no sympathy for companies who charge extortionate prices for their software.

The worst part is when they say that piracy is the same a physical theft which it very clearly isn’t.