The problem with the shoplifting metaphor is that shoplifters take tangible items that can not be resold by the store.

The digital world is filled with intangible material. No matter how many copies someone makes of my web videos I still have the original and could sell it (or the rights to use it). I haven't "lost" anything unless someone who would have bought it doesn't because he (or she) got a copy elsewhere.

Opportunity cost ("we could have sold this much") is an estimate. You can't predict which people would have bought the item if they weren't able to get it for free. You also can't predict the number of people who got it for free (illegally) and then bought a legal copy for either the manual, the support, or because they'd test driven it and decided that it was worth the cost.

I can't believe all the warez copies are possessed by people who "would" have bought them legally. It would be impossible to determine the actual number because there are those who might not buy it today but down the road might change their mind. I've also seen companies have numerous copies of "unlicensed" software on their computers because they didn't keep good records when they moved them around as people switched departments or upgraded or what ever. No malice or intentional theft - just stupidity and poor record keeping.

I'm not saying it's right to warez. I'm not saying the protection scheme is bad or good (I've seen more restrictive measures and I've seen less restrictive measures).

I am saying that when the Mac version comes out, as long as Poser 5 meets my needs, I'll buy it. I'm not going to take a protection scheme as a personal attack. I'm not too worried about bugs - I've rarely seen a program without them. These things come and then are eventually fixed or superceded.

Security is a fact of life, bugs are a fact of software, the world is imperfect, stuff happens, and Remember the Alamo!

I can't belive I got involved in this one. I've been doing so good staying out of these threads....

Before they made me they broke the mold!
http://home.roadrunner.com/~kflach/