PC-DOS 3.3

[a.carlini at ntlworld.com]

Chuck Guzis wrote:
> When you copy and use software without the author's permission, you
> are denying him/her/them/it any opportunity for compensation for
> his/her/their hard work and expense in creating the software.  You
> are stealing.   

You are denying them _some_ opportunity. It just so happens that
society has decided that it is stealing at this point in time.
The point was to encourage people to produce "soft" works (like
books, music etc.) for the benefit of all by giving the producer
exclusive rights for some limited time. Now that the "limited
time" seems to be "lifetime of author plus infinity" it seems
to me that the original intention has been subverted.

It is not, however, stealing in my jurisdiction, and I'm guessing
not in yours either. It is copyright violation.

The whole discussion about DOS is a bit pointless though
isn't it? Doesn't FreeDOS work? I know that at least one
of the CDs that came with one of my recent motherboards
boots into FreeDOS (the other one, from a different manufacturer,
boots into Linux).

Antonio

-- 

Antonio carlini
arcarlini at iee.org