p2p news communication / p2pnet: Re: BSA on ’software piracy’

Dear Mr Holleyman >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Nowhere in your fuming rant on the BBC did you use the correct term for activity you were railing so bitterly about. You termed it ’stealing’, ‘theft’, ‘thievery’, among other terms that would indicate that Mr. William Gates (the notorious Harvard drop-out) came to work one morning to discover to his shock and horror that someone had crept into the warehouse under cover of darkness and removed boxes full of media. I don’t believe you were talking about pilfering media. I believe that you were referring to copying software.

The correct term for such replication (IF such a copy is subsequently used in an illegitmate fashion) is ‘infringement’. Please use the correct terms in any future outbursts of hyperbole.

Incidentally, if the copy made IS for a legitimate purpose, such as a backup or for transfer to compatible media (Perhaps, one gets a new PC with a CD-ROM, but no floppy drive. One may then copy the contents of their floppies disks to CD so the software is available on the new computer.) then that is called “fair use.” However, I see from the attendance records that you skipped out on the day that was covered in class.

Please read the material for “fair use” and review the dictionary entries for the relevant terms before your next public speaking engagement.

Thank you,

Mrs Elizabeth F. Wainwright-Cabot
Chairperson, English Department
St Grottlesex Academy atop the Hill
Brahminbury, Massachusetts
cc: M. Bainwol, C. Sherman, RIAA; D. Glickman, MPAA

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2005 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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