Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
I don't want to turn this into a debate, but musicians keep talking about their music getting stolen in the public domain and not being compensated, and then there's talk in the original post about ripping off the software manufacturer?
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I think about it in terms of software piracy and IT.
My screwing around with copies of software that I'd neither be able to afford nor have a genuine need for as an individual is exactly why I was able to get into IT at a young age, and be successful at it. Now, all those companies whose products I pirated when I was a kid, I've been able to make them money and far more than the cumulative value of all the products of theirs I used without a license. And nowadays, I work in engineering as a feature PM and product owner. And I pay for all my software.
Now stealing is illegal, you'll get no argument from me there. However, I can see scenarios in which software piracy isn't the worst thing in the world and some can even have a long-term advantage associated with it. As
an article from Medium points out, the ubiquity of the Windows operating system or Adobe's Photoshop can largely be credited to piracy.