Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I'm afraid, Barry, that we have an irreconcilable difference of opinion about this. I'm a software author who's spent (to date) 23 years working on a software package (for amateur astronomers) which is massively pirated. I know from your previous posts that you consider "sharing" copyrighted material to be a good thing to do. To me, people who use my software without paying for it are people I have no liking and certainly no respect for, and I certainly don't think that pirates are to be praised in any way whatsoever.
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I think you're putting what I've said into a different context where I don't believe it applies. I'm a retired programmer, mostly for government and coroporations but at one time I also had a set of shareware programs for my home computer become massively pirated. It was my first and last attempt at shareware. They were a set of graphics programs for the Radio Shack Color Computer, a few decades ago when it was a pretty new computer. They were the first real graphics programs for that computer and they were widely talked about and shared and used until more sophisticated programs became available a year or two later. I don't remember how many I actually received payment for but the number was very small. I was more than a little bit upset by that even though I was gratified that people liked it and used it. From that time on I made all my programs for that computer and the various other later home computers I had freeware. Might as well.
That's why I buy the books I read and the software I use; because if someone doesn't pay for them their authors might not write more books and programs.
However, when I was a kid and my parents bought a book I read it too, as did my brothers and my sister. And possibly some of the neighbors and a few of our friends. That's sharing and sharing with friends and family is a good thing. Of course the digital world adds a few new wrinkles to sharing and there's more potential for harm, but I think people are basically pretty honest and in the long run that kind of sharing leads to word spreading about a book and more sales, not less.
I'm talking about books, not software. Most of us read a book and we're through with it most of the time. Software is an ongoing thing. I buy a program and I might use it periodically for years. If I'm going to do that I'm going to buy it. If it's not a cheap program and there's no trial I'll find a pirate copy to try out first but if it does what I want it to do and I'm going to use it I'll always buy it. Every piece of software on my computer today is either freeware or I bought it. Or I wrote it myself.
I'm not advocating dishonesty. I don't think sharing a book with a friend is dishonest. I think refusing to share a book with a friend is stingy.
I'm fully aware that digital things are infinitely copy-able and that books are solitary solid object that can't be easily copied so they're one at a time things. And I realize that makes a bit of a difference when assessing the morality of lending books. But it's a small difference; a difference without much real meaning. I think it's perfectly honest to lend a book to a friend no matter what it's format.
I doubt that I'm going to convince you of this and that's okay. I'd hate to live in a world where we all thought alike. Well, maybe if everyone would instantly adapt to my changing opinions that might be fun but even that would wear on me after a time.
I don't think you're wrong. I think I'm right. That's not quite the same thing.
Barry