My iPhone Adventure

I recently got into a conversation with a software thief on my youtube comment board. I thought the lack of intellectual honesty was incredible. I can totally relate to someone who quietly uses cracked software from time to time (no one’s perfect, and the temptation is strong), but this guy seems to think that encouraging people to steal software is all right.

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bigdima3: you should have saved money on Windows 7 and get a cracked copy from pirate bay and get a GTX260 at first ,, the thing is, with latest cards ,the drivers seem to be dodgy ,, i was stuck between 5770 and 4850 , ,got 4850 for £60 while 5770 was £125.00, ,

Me: You couldn’t have come up with worse advice regarding Win 7. Didn’t you learn as a small child that stealing is wrong? Well, it still is. I don’t know why you think that anyone is entitled to anything for free, especially the labors of others

bigdima3: However, there are millions of ppl that already have an illegal copy of 7, , Plus, imagine how much money Microsoft made on Vista, i have few Vista licences on my laptops, i had to pay for them, but never used them, ,so yea, , heres the advise from a poor student, try not to pay for software

Me: You still have horrible and immoral advice. Not a single good argument for taking something that is not yours in that response. Stealing something because other people do it, does not make it less wrong; in fact it makes one a sheep. The fact that you have an excess of vista licenses doesn’t entitle you to steal either. Being poor doesn’t give you a license to steal. If you can’t afford Windows 7; save up for it, use your old (legal) copy of vista, or perhaps just run linux.

bigdima3: Its not like you’re going to get arrested for that, , call me a thief, but i windows 7 is only one out of hunderds of software that ive cracked or got for free you talk big cuz u can afford it, i cant, and i dont want to wait, ,

Me: Because you aren’t going to get caught doesn’t make it less wrong. In fact, doing the right thing when you won’t either get caught or be credited for doing the right thing speaks to your character. I’m not sure why you think it’s alright to take from a company because you can’t afford their products. Your right, I will call you a thief, because you’ve chosen to be one.

bigdima3: Hahahaha ,, whatever big boy, , do whatever you think is right , ,bye leave me alone now

Me: Leave you alone? right….. I’ll have to remind myself to stop forcing you to write on my video comment board. How about this, “big boy”; I’ll block you so that you don’t have the uncontrollable temptation to keep posting comments.

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So, to sum this guy’s moral grounds for stealing:

1. Other people do it, so it is alright for me to do.
2. I have an older version of the software, so I am entitled to the newer copy.
3. It’s not fair that other people can afford the software.
4. I shouldn’t have to wait until I can afford it.
5. I will not get caught.

I’ll admit that my responses were a little preachy, but I’ve never heard a good argument for stealing software, and this guy certainly didn’t change that. Shortly after posting my last comment, bigdima3 removed all of his posts on my board. I figured that his bullsh*t was getting so deep that even he couldn’t stand it. Who knows…

Another thief chimed in part of the way through the conversation:

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habboahmet: To not being a douchebag but i stick to bigdima3.. I mean, theres only a few kind of software that i have paid for until now. Everything else on software is cracked stuff like i am running Windows 7 Ultimate and didn’t pay a shit you know. I don’t find it good to purchase when you got it for free on the internet. Yes i can afford a W7 license but i do the same stuff for some of my games and movies. The last thing i bought was BF Bad Company 2 but i have downloaded lots of games after that

Me: The fault to your argument is assuming that software is “free on the internet”.  It’s not free; it’s stolen. It is really depressing to see people try to justify thievery.

habboahmet: whatever if its stolen or not i am not wasting my money to software that i can download.

Me: Well, I guess you can steal whatever you want and probably won’t get caught, but don’t try to argue that it’s o.k., because it’s not. You should at least be honest with yourself and replace the word “download”, in your last statement, with the word “steal”.

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At least habboahmet doesn’t try to justify the software he steals; he just doesn’t like the word “steal”. Maybe he fills a tinge of guilt.

Regardless, it is really disgusting how casually people mooch off of the hard works of others, and then suggest others do the same. These two people are prime examples of the kind of people who brought the annoyance that is DRM to the rest of us.