This is an interesting discussion indeed.
Allow me to chime in
Like HarryT and others, I too create software for a living. Guess what? I'm a smart person and as such, nothing insults me more than misapplication of terms and manipulation of language.
1. Piracy is robbery on the oceans. Piracy isn't copyright infringement. Copyright infringement isn't theft.
2. If someone makes a copy of my software and uses it without paying me for it...they haven't stolen the software from me. I still have it. I have NOT been deprived of my property.
3. NO ONE is entitled to software that is charged for without paying for it. CONVERSELY...I do not have the "right" to be paid. It isn't a "right" in the true sense of the word, as I am not being deprived of property, but of income *potential*
Copyright infringement isn't a technological problem...its a social/moral one. People should not use software they did not pay for...and I would prefer it greatly if in fact people purchased a license to use mine.
Its not going to happen. Everyone that uses it isn't going to pay for it. Its funny...the first year or so our stuff was available...we dedicated a ridiculous amount of time chasing down "pirates" and flipping algorithms and attempting to devise various ways to stop folks from using the software without paying for it.
It is, at the end of the day, a deterrent at best for casual folk...nothing more. Some people will always think it is worth "more" to spend the time figuring out how to not pay than to do so. These people are not...customers.
I don't care about them, or their problems...at all.
We finally came up with a "compromise" solution that I know for sure "hurts" my customers more than those that are not...sadly.
I've even in the past sold product to known "pirates"...
Believe it or not...the people that I find worse than the "crack please" types are the ones that purchase a product with the sole intent of getting a license...then complaining to their bank/cc company for a refund...because that costs me *more than the sale*.
I suppose its my Libertarian way of thinking about capitalism, but I realize no one is entitled to anyone else's Actual Money. Not even me.
I do not think of these people as "criminal scum" because I don't take it personally. If I never sell another copy of any of our software products, I still have the blueprints and the knowledge that was used to invent them in the first place.
If someone was able to take those away...then we have crossed into the realm of theft.