[ANN] The Scripter's Scrapbook version 5

[Richard Gaskin]

Vjstbenz at aol.com wrote:
 > if you are having those problems...may i surgest ShadowUser
 > Pro v2.5 for windows...
 >
 > you can get it free...at ...[RANDOM CRACK SITE DELETED]...
 > (10's of thousands of dollars worth of free software
 > (serials for TRIALS etc)

Dude, you're really batting 1000.

ShadowUser is a commercial product that costs US$69.  While affordable, 
it's certainly not free.

Let me explain a little bit about how life works, and I pray this will 
be all the education you'll need to begin a productive life:


The site you referenced is an illegal distribution point for copyright 
violations.  The c r a c k z and ser ial z posted there violate 
international copyright agreements and carry stiff penalties in the US 
under the DMCA.

Maybe you haven't noticed, but the Rev community is filled with people 
who make software.  Much of what these folks make is commercial, and 
require serial numbers that are sometimes illegally posted on Chinese 
(and Korean and Russian...) sites like the one you referenced in Hong Kong.

While most people who use cr ac kz and se ri alz are never likely to 
become customers anyway, there are those who would and the easy 
availability of serial numbers hurts those who earn their living by 
making software.  Those hit the hardest are often smaller software shops 
of the sort who populate this list.  So while freeloaders lounge at the 
beach on other people's time, the folks here are working late to make up 
the difference.

By supporting these crimes you will not make friends here.


Life works like this: you give value for value recieved.  When you 
benefit from another's labor, if it's a gift you accept it graciously 
and if it's not you trade something of value in exchange for it.

When both sides act in earnest, the collective value of their world 
increases for the benefit of all.

But when you benefit from another's labor and give nothing back you are 
effectively treating that person as your personal slave. Civilized 
people banned slavery long ago; you would do well to join them.

I grew up in a town where cowboys would pick up Mexican immigrants and 
work them all day, and at the end of the day just toss them out of their 
truck without pay, laughing with the knowledge that the workers had no 
recourse.  By supporting piracy you are pretty much doing the same thing 
to software developers; you might just as well break into ShadowStor's 
Utah office and steal $69 from their petty cash drawer.


If you wish to demonstrate any ethical consistency, at this point you 
have two options:

a) stop freeloading, pay for all the commercial software on your drive, 
and apologize to the authors for ever having stolen from them in the 
first place.

b) offer your time/products/services to the world for free, as you 
apparently expect from others.

It's never to late to begin a productive life.

--
  Richard Gaskin