Seems like there are a lot of illegally kept animals here...

[jason_ladouceur]

I make decisions based on my morals, not arbitrary laws and regulations.

i never said anything about any laws or regulations. If your morals tell you it's ok to steal than go right ahead i guess.

[Raptor]

I believe in some states it is perfectly legal to shoot a person dead to protect your property. the fine seems pretty small by comparison.

Yet more and more people who do so are facing charges. However, there is a vast, vast different between an armed robber who wishes to kill you and downloading a song.

Frankly, piracy isn't a purely black and white issue.

[CapeFearConstrictors]

I'm not sure how it's not black and white.

Someone spends a lot of time and effort (and in a lot of cases MONEY) to create something. They let you use it in exchange for some of your money. If you like and it want to use it, you should pay for it. To not do so is enjoying the benefits of someone else's time, talents and effort without giving them their fair compensation.

Like I said earlier, I spend 40-60 hours a week (time I could otherwise be spending with my family and friends, enjoying my hobbies, etc) working. I've invested thousands of hours of hard work into my software and my business partner and I have paid our employees hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to develop, test and support our software. Our software offers much value to those who decide to use it. In exchange for that value that we've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and an untold number of hours on creating, we ask for a small one time fee.

If you pirate and use my software, you are taking money out of my wallet that should otherwise be there. You are benefiting from the monumental effort that goes into that software, but you didn't pay for it. It would be like hiring someone to mow your yard or clean your house and then refusing to pay for it. It's theft, pure and simple... or, if you'd like, black and white.

[Slashmaster]

I completely agree with CapeFear, being a software team manager. It's pretty much an analogy to raising snakes...same concept. I don't like entitlement either.

I paid my software designers, I paid for the software to write my programming, I paid to get the art involved with the software, I invested my time into checking for errors and debugging, I invested my money into an office for my workers, and when I produce software... you're not entitled to it for free.

I paid for the parents, I paid for the food to raise them to breeding age, I paid to heat them, I invested my time cleaning them, I invested my money buying racks, and when I produce babies... you're not entitled to them for free.

[OhhWatALoser]

If you pirate and use my software, you are taking money out of my wallet that should otherwise be there.

I suggest this topic be moved but...

Flawed logic here, are you telling me that everything someone downloads they would of paid for it? Adobe photoshop is the most pirated software, do you honestly think every single person who owns it would of paid for it if it was not free? Every time someone downloads a song they would of paid for it if it was not free? Someone steals your car, your car is gone, someone steals your software, you're software is still there, someone else is benefiting unfairly....yes, but you however are not out anything. That's the black and white picture to me at least.

I want to also add, I am by no mean putting down what you do or saying people should go pirate your software because obviously they shouldn't. Your time, brain, and money has been put into this project, you should be compensated. However I don't believe you can make the statement I quoted

[Slashmaster]

I suggest this topic be moved but...

Flawed logic here, are you telling me that everything someone downloads they would of paid for it? Adobe photoshop is the most pirated software, do you honestly think every single person who owns it would of paid for it if it was not free? Every time someone downloads a song they would of paid for it if it was not free? Someone steals your car, your car is gone, someone steals your software, you're software is still there, someone else is benefiting unfairly....yes, but you however are not out anything. That's the black and white picture to me at least.

I want to also add, I am by no mean putting down what you do or saying people should go pirate your software because obviously they shouldn't. Your time, brain, and money has been put into this project. However I don't believe you can make the statement I quoted

I'm not the guy you asked, but...

I kind of think of it like services - mowing the lawn was the example. You may not have anything physically taken from you if someone asks you to mow their lawn but doesn't pay, but you're out your time. If someone takes your software without paying you, you're equally out the time you invested into making it, and time is money.

It's a tough subject for me to wrap my mind around when it comes to theoretical money damages from theft, but I definitely feel if someone takes something without paying for it, and it's required to pay for it, there's a loss there.

[JLC]

I believe this thread has reached the end of its usefulness. The original question was addressed and answered quite clearly. What's come since then is beginning to skirt dangerously close to sounding like encouragement to go out and pirate digital materials because it "doesn't really hurt anyone."

I'd rather end it here than hand out infractions.