"Dennis Pogson" wrote in
:

Geoff Schultz" geoff"at wrote:
"Dennis Pogson" wrote in
:

Bill Kearney wrote:
Most of these BSB charts can be obtained in digital form anyway,
by resorting to a file-sharing program such as Emule, therefore
saving the time and cost of scanning.

Right, so you're saying just steal them instead of paying.

I don't use BSB charts, but they are there if anyone wants them.
Also, if my neighbour offers me a copy of some well-known software,
and I offer him a copy of another application in return for his
generosity, I don't regard myself as having "stolen" anything.

Perhaps if you spent some time studying the P&L accounts of the
leading software companies, you would see what I mean.

BTW I don't use E-Mule, but millions do.

DP

So just what do the P&L statements of the leading SW companies show?
And what if these aren't from the *leading* software companies? Does
that still count?

If you traded your software to another person, and both of you
destroyed copies of said software on your respective machines, I
would agree with you. Otherwise you've profited by maintaining both
copies.

Simply because people walk into stores and steal things, doesn't make
it right. The stores mark everything up to cover the shrinkage. All
of us who don't steal the products end up paying for it. There's no
difference other than the one in a store has a physical essence and
the other is just bits streaming over the Internet or on a disk.

-- Geoff (ex-software developer)

Just in case you missed the original post, scanning copyright media is
also stealing, as is hitting the Prt Scr key on your keypad in certain
circumstances. Perhaps we should all sue the hardware manufacturers
who invented and marketed the CD/DVD-copying devices to the consumer
public?

How about suing NOAA for releasing all these vector and raster charts
of the US coastline worldwide, surely they must be somebody's
intellectual property? Why should a BSB chart of the Eastern Med be so
different? Don't we all pay taxes?


DP



I think that you're trying to redirect what caused my initial comments:

Also, if my neighbour offers me a copy of some well-known software,
and I offer him a copy of another application in return for his
generosity, I don't regard myself as having "stolen" anything.

I, and many other people who make/made a living from writing software,
would disagree with you.

I understand that coping material can be illegal depending upon what you
do with it. I use a simple method to determine if I am steeling by
copying something. (1) If I own something, I feel that I should be able
to make a copy for myself. I don't "share" these copies with anyone
else. (2) If I copy something that someone else owns, to avoid paying
for it, then I am steeling it. I'm depriving the author of the money
that they should have received from it.

The NOAA charts are public domain, so there's no copyright associated
with them. Copy them and do what you want with them to your hearts
content. However, if a chart isn't public domain, then no, it isn't OK.
You need to make the decision on a chart by chart basis, but from what
I've read from your previous posts in this thread, you clearly don't
care.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org