altiris said:
so your saying you're dying and starving with no money and need to steal recording software to tame your lust to occupy yourself in you free time.
No silly, I'm saying that there are people in the world who are dying, starving, etc. with no money. I am not one of these people, although I am poor by first world standards. But I am by no means in the dying category.
I am advocating that, for example, people who have the money to purchase software not purchase that software, and instead bootleg it and use the purchase price of the software to help some of these people who are really in need. Because they need it a lot more than the rich people that own Steinberg. And, because it is possible for the employees of companies like Steinberg to keep or have even better jobs, if we demand that profits be put toward socially responsible causes.
altiris said:
Makes no sense. Here you moan and groan about starving people yet your stealing software. That means that you have musical instruments and a PC and other valuable goods. That would put you in the surplus. So why don’t you sell it so you can feed the poor. And against the poor you are rich so someone needs to break into your house and steal from you . But if it happens you should not file a police report because its probably someone who is poor and needs the money. Again the rich (you) being robbed by the poor man.
Good point, and I agree with you overall on this. There are some other things that I think are relevant to consider, though.
All of the equipment that I use is either gotten for free somehow, or borrowed or shared from friends. It is true that we could sell it and put the small amount of money that the sale would generate into helping the dying and suffering. At the same time, we have to weigh that against the loss of our ability to access the internet for certain things. Although we could use the internet at the library for certain things, I don't think that we'd be allowed to install and use FTP software to manage and update our website (which is entirely devoted to helping incarcerated children, and preventing children from being incarcerated and abused). So, if the computer goes, the website goes too, as far as I can tell. And the website has and surely will continue to help prevent kids from being locked up and abused (more than a few parents were considering locking their kids up in a behavior modification facility, but then found the website, decided against it, and emailed me about it.)
As for the audio equipment that we have, there's really no excuse. We do let pretty much anyone who's interested come over and use it, and we show them how to use it. We treat it like the community's property, rather than our own. For my part, I just really like music, and the possibilities that exist with electronic music. However, if someone broke into our apartment and stole it for the purpose of meeting the needs of dying or suffering people, I really have no right or legitimate reason to be mad. In ANY case, I would not file a police report, because the police would only use that report as justification for harassing, intimidating and abusing more people.
Also, for the record, while I think that our possession of audio equipment is not really defensible, I do think that, considering the amount of wealth that we possess and also considering the fact that the equipment is pretty much open for anyone in the community to come use, what we do is a far cry in magnitude and nature from what the 1% of the population that owns >40% of the wealth does.
Another relevant point is that there are sufficient resources in the world for every community that so desires to have a set of community use audio equipment without any person having to die from lack of resources. However, there are not sufficient resources in the world for every person who so desires to own their own island, private jet, yacht, etc.. I do think that this is a relevant consideration.
Ultimately, I do agree that our possession of the audio equipment is a morally indefensible position, given the fact that there are people who are dying for lack of resources. However, it is, again, on a different order of magnitude than the amount of surplus resources possessed by the 1% of the population that controls >40% of the wealth.
And I do think that it is legitimate for me to criticize that 1% of the population, because if they distributed their wealth in a sufficient manner, anyone who so desired could have at least my present standard of living without anyone else suffering for lack of resources.
, and they act with REGARD to their employees. So unless you are a hypocrite, which we already know you are, you need to immeadiately head out and buy a legit copy of Cubase because here is a company that is doing it right.
