I was on Craigslist today and came across this post.
In response I flagged the post as in violation of Craigslist rules and sent "sale-569449932" the below email. And yes I did give him/her a link to this blog, which I hope they find with this post.
There are a few things here that amaze me. First, it is really bold to openly post for the world to see that you do not care about software licensing. Stealing software is a crime, and just really shady.
Second, it takes a narrow minded person to not realize that it is stealing and you are stealing from lots of people. It is not just Bill Gates; it's the Gates Foundation (you cannot argue it's not a good cause), the developers that wrote the software, and some seriously hard working people at Microsoft (that are not rich) which I have had the pleasure of working with during my career.
Thirdly, as much as I like working with Microsoft they are not the only software option. Lots of companies that are not Microsoft exist. If you don't want to buy Microsoft software do a Google search on "mac office software" and NeoOffice comes up on page two. It would take less time than doing a Craigslist post.
If you want something with a little more functionality for a really low price try OpenOSX
for $30.
With so many options out there why resort to something that shows such poor character?
February 10, 2008
Don't Steal Software
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2 comments:
Yea - stealing software is bad.
I do think some of the license agreements for software are jacked and I'm in the software industry. I actually think it should be a usage license instead of a computer license because so many people have multiple computers or multiple people working at different times in different locations and I don't think they should be forced to buy multiple licenses of the same software.
Web based software is a nice solution for that.
Lot's of people blame Microsoft (an other companies) for having poor licensing agreements, but it is often what you purchase. If you by a computer pre-loaded with Windows and office (i.e. a DELL or the linke) that license is usually not transferable. It is for that machine only.
But if you buy the software separately (like my version of Windows XP) you can install it on multiple machines that you own and use separately (think desktop and laptop, or laptop and laptop).
Sometimes it pays to spend more for the software that is not preinstalled because you can then install it on multiple machines.
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