ok; so clearly this thread has been derailed into the 'is it stealing' discussion instead of the 'what are you using to get shit' thread i intended. so here i go:
i think there is 2 ways of viewing this issue; morality and the the law. i think that what i do is entirely moral. but when i call it stealing, i am referring to the law. so far, in america and almost every other country, what is being done on kazzaa and all the other p2p networks, and ftps, and everwhere else, is considered illegal. not only is it considered illegal, it is considered theft.
if the cops burst down many of our doors (in america), they would over $5,000 of goods with no hard copy (be that software, games, music, or video). that would be considered a felony in the eyes of a judge.
if the judge and the police and the politicians think i'm a thief, then i'm a thief. you can absolutely feel that this is an incorrect word to describe you or me. but it is still the word society is using to describe you. in england in the eighties, a member of the IRA was a terrorist. in ireland, he was a freedom fighter.
note that whenever a p2p proggie tried to defend itself, it says they have no control over what their users do... they do not defend the process of users downloading and uploading goods in and of itself.
you could even say i'm doing a service by calling it stealing when i reference filetrading. with the word sharing being thrown around so much, i imagine it would be easy for people to think this business isn't illegal. i think it's important for us all to keep in mind that some of us have a potential felony conviction sitting in our bedrooms and living rooms and should behave cautiously because of that.
as for morality, i'll repeat that i don't feel that what i do is wrong. and maybe when you take offense at my calling it stealing you are thinking of morality. because your certainly not thinking of the law, which so far is rather clear on this issue.
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