James S Bear wrote: > I hope we all understand that stealing will make us as bad as Microsoft. I > wouldn't say Microsoft has a lousy product, but I do pray with all my hear that > I won't have to buy another MS product in my life. I could possibly agree with > the fact that they are evil(and maybe Borders, but...), but this in no way > justifies stealing. In my mind, that would be the same thing. IT's not my > business what happens to Mr. Gates's conscience(and I won't get into the > afterlife question here) but it is my business what happens to mine. > Just a thought. > I get what you're saying and I respect where you're coming from, and for any individual person it's their own issue how they feel about and deal with all these issues. I don't want to come off like I'm riling people up to go on a stealing spree, I'm just saying please please think about who you support when you buy from Borders, the same way I tell my Windows-using friends to please please think about who they support when they buy from Microsoft. I really wish someone would get past the stealing thing and talk about what I was really saying, which is just that buying from Borders seems to be a contradiction from the kinds of people who won't buy from Microsoft. Besides, how many of you burn cds? How many of you have used old Win98 disks to upgrade your friend's old 95 systems for free? How many of you listen to mp3's? All of those things are stealing, there's no two ways about it. You owe Microsoft $150 bucks for every time you did an install of Win98 on more than one computer. You owe Seagram/Polygram $17 for every time you burned a cd or downloaded a dozen mp3's. While I admit to doing all those things, I am honest enough to acknowledge that what I am doing is stealing, and I think everything out in my head and I resolve that it is less wrong to burn the cd than it is to go out and support the RIAA. If you deny the fact you are stealing, you are lying to yourself to protect the attitude you have that makes you think you're better than a common thief. In fact most common thieves are far more justified than we are. We burn cd's because we don't like paying for cd's, a boy kills a king's deer because he doesn't like his family starving to death. My point here is twofold: 1. We almost all do things that are undeniably stealing. 2. I'm not trying to say stealing is right, I'm trying to say it's less wrong than supporting Borders. Time to go coach my soccer kids, Isaac "I'm an American, I believe in the American Way. I worry if the government encourages open source; and I don't think we've done enough education of policy makers to understand the threat." - Jim Allchin, Microsoft Windows Operating System Chief http://news.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-4825719-RHAT.html?t
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
