Originally posted by sigma: Whether a person offers it to you or not doesn't make it "not-stealing" since it's not theirs to freely give out
Which brings us back to playing a CD for your friends. THEY didn't pay to listen to the CD and the paying consumer sure as hell isn't entitled to freely pass along that intellectual property because it still resides with record company.
I see this argument having two protagonists. One side preaches fire and brimstone about the damnation that will surely result from using open wi-fi; they are the ones who also seek stringent enforcement of speed limits yet routinely do 5 mph over, who watch a program on PBS yet never offer a contribution, and who routinely take a penny yet never leave one. The other side sees it merely as yet another gray area of morality in this tech-savvy world who feel that if it was such a problem plaguing ISPs we would have surely seen SOMETHING from them telling their users how to lock their access points. Perhaps a notice to new subscribers? Perhaps a notice to current subscribers that are extensive users? Perhaps a banner ad on their website? No? Well maybe this isn't such the problem you fire and brimstone lot make it out to be...
-- 1999 SVT #220 --
In retrospect, it was all downhill from here. RIP, CEG.
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