[OT] Pirate software in Germany?

[Lynn Fredricks]

> You might also remember that I am one of those people on the 
> front line trying to teach the teeming hordes of students who 
> think nothing of pirating software or other IP every semester 
> exactly why they will end up paying the piper at some point 
> or another, and probably at the expense of honest folk.

Exactly why I brought up the piracy angle of it - you are an educator and
also involved with software development. You should appreciate that there
are software developers that have gone under for lack of being paid for
their work (which gets widely pirated).

This is also an ethical issue that really shouldn't have to be addressed in
schools, but has to since it isn't being addressed at home. I can appreciate
the monumental task you face there.

I put in several years as an educator after college. Also, I am an artist
and writer, and can tell you that not only the property of my clients and
partners (like Runtime, for example), but also the work of my hands, mind
and keyboard been pirated again and again. These aspects of my life don't
always contribute to how I make my daily bread, so I don't regularly discuss
them in the context of LiveCode or cover them on Linked In.

> And, let's face it:  the overwhelming predominance of piracy 
> lies outside the US, not within it.  So these laws that 
> pretend to help you in actuality end up doing little other 
> than weakening the 4th Amendment and lining the pockets of 
> the RIAA and MPAA in some of the most outrageous examples of 
> corporate litigation seen in US history.

Much of the wealth generated from piracy comes from within the USA or is
under the influence of the USA, and there are federal initiatives targeted
at that level. Fortunately this is a problem that many other countries are
trying to address as well.

This really isn't the forum for solving these problems. Now I have to think
of some other way to get Bob to say "tiddle bugger" again in a sentence :-)

Best regards,

Lynn Fredricks
President
Proactive International, LLC

- Because it is about who you know.(tm)
http://www.proactive-intl.com