>Just call me old fashioned. I wouldn't walk into a store and slip a >shrink wrapped CD under my jacket, and I wouldn't pirate software simply >because It's less risky.
But I do not believe that is the equivalent. Stealing a CD is actually taking into your possession a physical item. Making a COPY of software is creating something for yourself that had no physical existence before. We are at the cusp of achieving technology that will require our civilization to re-think its view of "economy." When visualizing the future world of "Star Trek," where replicators can instantly produce goods (both software and physical objects) from thin air (a technology that WILL exist someday -- we can already do it with subatomic particles), futurists realized that our current monetary saystem is doomed to fail. We must move forward as humans into an era where goods no longer have a monetary value. After all, if anyone can instantly make a "copy" of something (software and music now; physical items in the future) at little or no expenditure of energy and raw materials, one can no longer place a financial "value" on that thing. The music industry is already collapsing because of this. Within the next few centuries, as technology increases and we have true "replicators," the raw materials industries will as well. One can either embrace the change, or be stuck in the old ways. Interestingly, this concept is not "new" at all. Recent evidence has revealed that the longest civilization in human history -- ancient Egypt -- had no monetary system. There was such an abundance of raw materials, and such a surplus of food, that the government basically set up buildings where people could go and simply take what they needed. Unlike the false history we have of that culture (primarily written by their enemies, the Romans) in which Egypt is depicted as a slave state with a socioeconomic caste system, this couldn't be further from the truth. People literally used gold as a roofing material(!), because a.) there was so much of it and b.) unlike neighboring states (like Rome and Greece), they refused to embrace the arbitrary concept that a physical "thing" has a monetary value. People went to work not because they were receiving a paycheck (after all, there was no money), but because they wanted to participate in the workings of society, and feel that they were contributing to the overall good of the culture. It is a view that MUST be embraced as we enter the future. I remember an episode of "Star Trek" in which a cryonically frozen man from the 20th century was found by the Enterprise. He was a Wall Street broker, and could not wrap his mind around the concept that in the future, there will be no money, because all products can be reproduced indefinitely. Depressed and mindboggled by this change in thought patterns, he blurts out in desperation: "In a world where every person can have every thing they want, and the goal to accumulate wealth is no longer applicable and striving for money is no longer necessary, what is the purpose of life?" To which Picard replies: "To improve oneself." >But getting back to where we came in. If you detest Gates and his >monopoly, then all the more reason to pay for Nisus Writer rather than >stealing it. How do you expect these little guys to provide competition >for the evil Gates if you steal their software? I don't, which is why I purchased AppleWorks. :) ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
