Microsoft disclosed Monday that over one in five Windows installations were deemed non-genuine through the company's Windows Genuine Advantage program, which requires users to validate their operating system before downloading updates from the company. Since WGA launched in July 2005, over 512 million users have attempted to validate their copy of Windows, Microsoft said. Of those, the non-genuine rate was 22.3 percent. 56000 reports have been made by customers of counterfeit software, which grants that user a free replacement copy of Windows.
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Member since:2005-11-11
//You can't "steal" labor. It's effort, not an item.//
OK, so this is your new working definition? OK then, we'll go with that.
OK, using our new working definition, how can one "steal" software or multimedia by downloading it?
It's electrical signals on a wire, not an item.
Oh, so it's actually the "development effort by Microsoft engineers" that we are stealing, is that it?
//You can't "steal" labor. It's effort, not an item.//
QED.
(Cheeky grin ... I just love circular logic. It is the very best kind).
PS: In respect of this comment: "Even a stolen (pirated) copy of Windows XP isn't FREE. As you have to "pay" in worry (stress) that someday, somehow Microsoft might catch you in the act and hang your carcass in legal wranglings... or you "pay" in lack of support/documentation or all the security holes and bugs that pirated copies of Windows XP can't get fixed, or... whatever."
Hey, I agree. That is why I don't use Windows, I run Linux. It is incredibly liberating.
It is in a way as liberating as the fact that I have one option that you don't have with respect to the implicit self-contradictions within the Ten Commandments. Your choices in facing that contradiction (and countless others like it in the old testament) are strictly constrained by your apparent beliefs that (a) the old testament is literally the word of god, and that (b) god cannot be illogical.
My choices are far wider, because I simply don't believe (a).
My suggestion for your conundrum is that you might try believing that "the old testament is not the literal word of god" sometime. It is incredibly liberating.
Edited 2007-01-25 09:29
Member since:2005-07-27
Try installing Windows XP (or any software) without it residing on a medium of some kind... CD, HD, floppy disk, etc. You CAN'T. You can't install "electrical signals on a wire". Once it rests on a given medium, it is now a solid PRODUCT. A product you've STOLEN!
I believe the Word of God *IS* the Word of God, because that's what being a Christian is all about... believing God is God and that His Word is true.
I suggest you come to the quick realization that, without God, our lives are utterly meaningless and will only end in a sad, pathetic form of existance for as long as we're on this earth. After that, it only gets worse... MUCH worse. As in *eternally* worse.
But, of course, you don't believe in such things. But one day you will... one day you will. I would only hope that day comes before your last breath, because, either way...
"Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess... Jesus Christ is Lord"
I've did it a long time ago... because those who wait until they see Jesus, will STILL end up doing/saying the same, but won't have the chance to 'make up' for having been wrong. Their chance will be gone.
You see, from a purely logical perspective, I look at it this way...
If God DOESN'T exist, I've nothing to lose. I've stayed away from those things that would be bad for me anyways (drugs, alcohol, violence, rampant sexual liasons, etc. All those worldly "pleasures" people don't want to give up) and felt great living that way. In the end, my legacy is that I lived the best life possible.
If God DOES exist (and I believe He does, of course!), then I have MUCH more to look forward to, beyond this temporal existance we call life. A future that never ends, with the Creator of the universe! Those things I do for others and my loyalty to God will be rewarded, as stated in the bible.
Contrast that with YOUR life...
If God DOESN'T exist, your life is utterly meaningless. Filled with whatever you can do to bide your time until you die. Run the rat race, get money, buy things, do whatever your temporal flesh desires... and then... one day... it's over. You simply cease to exist. Your life, for all your goals and quests and accomplishments... equals NOTHING! None of it mattered. Not how long you lived nor how much you gained. You still end up dead. A dead body in a grave or an urn full of ashes. Think of it... a life that means absolutely NOTHING in the end.
[I had a vision of that *exact* scenario one day, when I was eating lunch out in the field at Van Nuys Jr. High (around 1980-81) and it scared me S-less! In that moment, my life passed before my eyes, and it scared me. To think my life would amount to nothing, in the end.]
If God DOES exist, you will face a Holy God when you die, who will require an accounting of your life. Every jot and tittle will be recalled. And you will be forced to bow the knee and confess Jesus as Lord... realizing that you no longer have any excuse for your actions and words. You will suddenly realize that you were wrong and there is NOTHING you can do to make up for it... your chance was lost, when you died. All those years wasted in temporal pleasures... and for what? THIS! Eternal damnation for following after the god of this world... Satan. Not because God WANTS you there, but because you CHOSE to refuse His one solitary Gift. His Son.
There are two paths in this world. One wide and one narrow. The wide path leads to hell. The narrow path leads to heaven. God doesn't SEND you to hell, for being on the wide path. That's just the destination at the end of it. Simple fact. You follow Satan, you go where he goes. A very simple premise of "Follow-the-leader". And he's headed for Hell... no matter what he does. His path will end up there, sooner or later.
So, the way I see it, you can risk eternal consequences, believing God DOESN'T exist, or you can choose to believe He does and... if he doesn't... you've lived an overall better life in spite of it!
As Jesus, Himself, said... "What profit it a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall he give in exchange for his soul?"
Are you willing to take that risk? Eternity in hell lasts just as long as eternity in heaven. Except your only thought will probably be... "I was wrong... I was wrong... I was wrong... I was wrong..."
There is no such suffering worse than to realize you "COULD have" and now you "NEVER will have".
Not a fun thought to have for the rest of eternity...
Amen.
Now, um... can we get back to dissing Microsoft and their over-priced OS that everyone and their unborn child is pirating? :-)
Member since:
2005-07-27
You can't "steal" labor. It's effort, not an item. The very premise of Slavery is all about "free labor", forced or otherwise. In order to "steal" labor, the person working would have to put a price on it and be *able* to say "I will not work for less than X amount." and have the person wanting the labor, not honor that and still force the person to work for them for nothing or to not pay the person after the work is already done. Since that never happens, the context is invalid. You can't say something is worth X amount, if the person doing the work doesn't (or isn't allowed to) put a value on it. I believe, in the context of slavery, housing and food (and a lack of whippings) was considered "payment" for said work.
Doesn't make it right, tho.
And given that clothing and food and housing and comfort (heating and warm water) is what we pay for quite frequently (monthly), are our lives really all that much different, even if we're not forced to work for whomever? We all gotta get money someway... lest we wanna live under a bridge as a homeless person.
Contrarywise, Microsoft HAS put a price on an ITEM and said "This product is worth X amount.". To take that item and not pay for it, is considered STEALING.
Rule #1: Nothing is FREE. Everyone has to pay SOMETHING for everything. If slavery were truly FREE, you wouldn't have to clothe or feed or house or train your slaves. Things which, in time or money, cost something.
Even a stolen (pirated) copy of Windows XP isn't FREE. As you have to "pay" in worry (stress) that someday, somehow Microsoft might catch you in the act and hang your carcass in legal wranglings... or you "pay" in lack of support/documentation or all the security holes and bugs that pirated copies of Windows XP can't get fixed, or... whatever.
Shoot, even if you were given a FREE copy of Windows XP that was 100% legal in every way, shape, and form, you STILL have to pay... in worrying that you may be hit by one of 50,000,000,000 different viruses, trojan horses, back doors, security holes, spyware, and/or Malware of some kind...
All of which is quite easily avoided... by owning a Mac. :-D
Latre!
Luposian