Jinx wrote:
>> It doesn't. EVERY case you've given (except the car/house alarm)
>> are precautions taken to increase public safety
>>     
>
> Herbert and Jake -
>
> Yes, but WHY are those precautions necessary ? Human Behaviour,
> that's my point. I'm not comparing the physical acts of drink-driving
> to sofware piracy
>
>   
But you are saying they should be treated the same.
cops doing random breath tests is needed to stop drink driving.
minor inconvenience to the non-law breaker, major effect towards
improving my life (ie i don't get dead)
needing rectal exam to reinstall XP because i am a geek and keep my GF's
computer on the cutting edge (the fact that i use it for games is beside
the point)?
inconvenience is *far* greater than a RBT, (last time i got tested it
took about 2 minutes, microsoft product activation has wasted several
hours of my life in total so far and i have been driving longer than XP
has been out)

Therefore, my drive to pirate XP is greater than my drive to
drink/drive. (metaphorically speaking)

If its free I'm not going to steal it.
>> Note I have NO problem with efforts that try to prevent copying that
>> do not remove any of my rights, and won't cause me problems in the
>> future. A serial number approach is perfectly fine IMHO
>>     
>
> Well, that's what Dwayne has to decide. I agree with you about
> fair use. ISTR court cases and debate in forums about the inability
> to make genuine archive copies because of protection
I am going to depend on somebody hacking the crap out of blue-ray and
the like so I can watch HD-DVD's on my Linux HTPC. If I want to pirate a
movie then I'll just download it, same with DVD regioning. Putting copy
protection on the disk itself will *only* penalize legitimate users. If
somebody wants to steal it bad enough they will, and once they have,
everybody else who wants it free will have it within days. For the
record, I watch pretty much only that which i get from free to air TV.
If I do download something its probably because I missed it on TV.

My suggestion for the OP is to open source it, or make it free as in
beer. The market is small, people are going to be wary of spending cash
on your product and you will get a support headache from customers who
have paid but are just generally crap at using computers. Give it to all
who want it, and then charge them for convenience and the support.
Customers who are hellish before suddenly become A1 best friends, billed
by the hour. Charge for automatic maintenance and feature updates as a
subscription service if you want a retainer.
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist