Please do not use political references in your posts. This is not allowed as Avsim is non-political.

8 hours ago, tjstreak said:

copyright laws traditionally have not been used against the casual consumer. 

15 years ago a colleague of mine was senteced to pay a fine of €5000 because he privately "rented" digital copies of movies to others free of charge, using his website. There must have either been someone who really didn't like him, or a movie distributor found out. I don't think the cyber crime units of the German authorities were up to speed back then, and in any case, they aren't really watching anyway (§109 UrhG). Lucky for him that this was before the new version of the UrhG was established that today favors prison over financial penalty.

Never say never, not in the digital age.

Best regards

Edited October 24, 20196 yr by Lorby_SI

When I said "traditionally," I meant a century ago.

This is something that has gone through very dramatic changes over the decades.  It still is very much in flux. (i.e. every time the copyright on Mickey Mouse is about to expire, the length of copyrights is extended.)

Edited October 24, 20196 yr by tjstreak
Added addtional information

Piracy???

Someone mentioned making cassette tapes back in the day. I used to buy LPs in vinyl. I personally had no problem making tapes for my cassette player in my car. I did not even hesitate to make tapes for friends or old crushes. Technically, it was probably piracy. I was giving music away for free. I had purchased the original LP. This practice was so widespread that I really don’t think any owners of the music cared.

Fast forward to 1999. Napster. Music was being shared. In my opinion, it was no different than making cassette tapes or sharing records between friends. What the issue was, it was so widespread.  I downloaded digital copies of music, however I limited myself to the LPs that I owned. Replacing my analog versions with digital versions. At the time, Canadian copyright laws enabled me to do that. So, technically, I did not break any laws.

Another analogy, my kids play with their PlayStation. They can buy a new game, enter the license number and play to their heart’s content. When they are done, assuming it is on a disc, they can take the game to the local retailer, trade it in, and get a discount on a new game. The game they returned, goes in a bargain bin and resold by the retailer. I personally do not see any difference between this and Ray’s situation. The same license was used twice and the retailer has made money twice from the sale of the same physical disc. Nothing from the second sale goes back to the developer or publisher.

To me, piracy exists when you take a copy of software, and you are not helping putting food on the table for the developer, or helping them pay the bills. But the philosophical question is, if the product is no longer offered for sale, are take food from the developers mouth? There are websites all over the internet that you can access abandonware. Is it right? That’s up to you to decide. 

This Is just my opinion, I am not a lawyer nor am I condoning any illicit activities.

@Groovy_Kincaid, excellent points.

On 10/23/2019 at 3:40 AM, IAhawkeyeDDS said:

A pirate walks into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender brings the beer and cant help notice a steering wheel in his pants and asks. "whats with the steering wheel in your pants "? The pirate responds “AARRRR its driving me nuts”

A pirate walked into a bar and the bartender said, "Hey, I haven't seen you in a while. What happened, you look terrible !"

"What do you mean? I'm fine."

"What about that wooden leg? You didn't have that before."

"Well," said the pirate, "We were in a battle at sea and a cannon ball hit my leg but the Doc fixed me up, and I'm fine, really."

"Oh yeah? Well, what about that hook? The last time I saw you, you had both hands."

"We were in another battle and we boarded the enemy ship. I was in a sword fight and my hand was cut off but the Doc fixed me up with the hook, and I feel great, really."

"Oh," said the bartender, "what about that eye patch ? The last time you were in here you had both eyes."

"One day when we were at sea some parrots were flying over the ship. I looked up and one of them cr*pped in my eye."

"You're kidding," said the bartender, "you couldn't have lost an eye just from some bird cr*p !"
"Well, I really wasn't used to the hook yet."

...sorry. Couldn't resist....

Regards

Bill

 

 

 

Many countries equate licences with normal goods and where transfer and resale by the owner of a good is permitted by law this means software can be resold or transferred,

Licences also impose obligations on the licencor and if these are breached (often even when there are terms which may end licences at any time) there is in many countries a right of use (and if permitted by law transfer) .  If the granter of the licence can be found he could if he attempted to object be subject to damages counterclaims for his breach of an implied condition to support,

All in all I do not steal software, but I would have no hesitation in doing whatever is needed to get continued use as I have paid for.,