University of South Carolina Libraries
[^6 Confessioi I have a confession to make. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm a pirate. Novice computer users might imagine me donning an eye-patch, wearing a sword on my belt and putting a talking parrot on my shoulder. But veteran users will know what I really mean. I am guilty of using software that I haven't paid for?that in fact doesn't belong to me. More importantly, I'm far from the only person who is plundering the digital seas. You've probably heard the term "software piracy," but you may not realize exactly what it is or how far reaching its implications actually are. A basic definition of software piracy is usincr coDies of commercial programs or data which haven't been paid for. You and your friends can become pirates innocently enough. You might buy a program, like a computer game, and one day a friend plays it on your computer and enjoys it. They ask to try the game on their computer before buying their own. So, they copy it from you and test drive it on their computer for a few days. Then the days turn into weeks, and the weeks turn into months. In the end, your friend has illegal software residing on their hard drive forever, and you are liable for allowing it to happen. Software piracy can also be much more blatant. You might want a new $500 program even thought you don't have $500. Your friend can give you a copy for free. You decide to take the copy, knowing even as you take it that you will never buy one of your own This is a case where self-interest can easily outweign your moral sense oi right and wrong. The copying of software is a special crime because no one loses anything physical when data is pirated. It's much like the copying of a video, compact disc or audio tape. The original owner of a computer program still has the program after you copy it. Since nothing material is lost, manj users dent view piracy as a real crime. But it is a most serious one. Estimates of lost software sales from piracy are in the billions of the dollars. This means software compaBUC I ^ PATO BANTON Collections SINGLE GUN THI Flow River Of My Soul $10.95 cd KING SUNNY AD Live At The I Hollywood Palace $10.95 cd \ CAROLINA'S } The Gamecock ware pirate computer world. A number of schemes have been used by programmers to try and stop piracy. Almost all can be defeated by _ a persistent user. Piracy of commercial software will most likely always 1S be around. But, that doesn't mean 0_ you have become "Captain Hook with n_ a floppy disk." There are inexpensive 0f alternatives to commercial software: Freeware. Some programmers is of a soft PHI' MARC mmW LaFOUNTAIN Technobabble nies are losing big bucks when we i users give out illegal copies of pr grams. This hurts the software ii dustry and deprives programmers deserved income. Because of this, piracy is illeg? Those caught pirating software wa the plank, facing fines and even ii carceration. Those who go a step fu ther, and try to sell illegal progra copies, can face even higher fines ai longer jail time. Software piracy is an area of n life where I must admit to comple and total hypocrisy. While I have ne er sold a pirated program for profit must to admit to copying far too mai things that didn't belong to me ar giving things to others. I knew wh I was doing was wrong, but I creati wonderful rationalizations for my a tions. I still use them to this day. My best rationalization is the "po college student excuse." I tell mys< that me and friends are financiall strapped students who cant afford e pensive programs, bo, its OK to ju take them. When I graduate and ma r lots of money, then 111 pay for my so ware, I say. i But this is really just a way for e to justify what I know to be an ii ; moral and illegal practice. Amlg . ingtostop? I will probably never st completely because I will always wa r programs I can't afford. However, I better than I used to be. rmpiratii less and I'm purchasing more, anc feel better doing it. One thing pirates often forget , that purchasing a product has sign icant benefits over copying it Youg 1 manuals and documentation for yo software. You get technical suppc r from software companies if you ri into problems. As a registered us< you get product upgrades at reduo i prices or for free. You also have pie s of mind knowing you aren't stealii from the talented programmers of t inn IM 1 pants Wh^fou n A ! 19 ; ;|i;a : Ifl |||;': j?. 1 II<" -y ^S*27?5Jflufc I I.R.S. I.R.S ORY VARIOUS On The Charts 1979-'94 $7.45 cd PAL LA DIN OS Traveling Dark $10.95 cd Original music & ^ litttiMi i tirm-m . ^ M rus* warr>* mmr ? $&& M I ;- DADA American Highway Flower OYER THE RHINE Eve $10.95 cd HEMISPHERE ARTISTS World Music Sampler $7.45 cd /1DE0 SUPERSTORE tj practice their skill for free and they Ik create wonderful programs. Theydisn_ tribute them to everyone and encourr. age users to do the same. m Shareware. These programs 1(j can be freely distributed just like freeware. The difference is you are supjy posed to pay a small fee, usually unte der $30, if you keep shareware after v. a set period of time. Sadly many users j (including myself) haven't always registered or paid for their shareware pro1(j grams?creating yet another form of at piracy. Postcard ware. A popular variIC_ ant of shareware, this is when you aan/4 on anthnr a rviflt(>ar^ if vnn naa or their program. jlf All of three of these types of proy. grams can be found on the Internet, ,x_ bulletin board systems and at computer users' group meetings. They can ke often provide a viable alternative to ft. pilfering commercial works. If you aren't certain whether it's OK to reie ceive or give out copies of a program, n_ read the software license and docu0_ mentation that come with it. They 0p will tell you if and how you may distribute copies. m I am not going to tell you not to pirjg rate software, as this would be hypoj j critical of me. What I will ask of you is to think before you copy, as I now js am. Think about the advantages of jf. purchasing software and about the ret money you are depriving program authors of when vou Dirate. Do vou re LAI v M. v irt ally want to reward innocent, harden working software designers with ;F) mutiny? e{* LaFountain is a journalism junior. ce His column appears every Wednesday. He can be e-mailed at lafountainmarc@scarolina.edu. |tNA! Wednesday, Octob* Christian QREQ WICKABAUGH Staff Wri Five religious groups at U meeting Friday night to have a night and to start uniting their for a common purpose. Praise Night will be held ai Friday at Longstreet Theater i feature contemporary Christian ing artist Roger Ferrell and h from Greenville. Ferrell has r three albums, including a live of a Furman University con performed in 1992. The event is sponsored, by na Christian Fellowship, Fell of Christian Athletes (FCA) varsity Christian Fellowship pus Crusade for Christ, and I tors. FCA president J.J. Gent there has usually been a d Soundtra SPUN DAD VICE STEPHANIE SONNENFELD St CLERKS AND LOVE A A .45 AAA (out of four stars) Sometimes you just like or from a group or artist and can to stomach die rest of their CD life of you. That's OK, everyor the same way, which is why tracks are a godsend. To suppc much-too-wide generalization, | out the soundtracks from tl movies "Clerks" and "Love& So you probably haven't se vertisements for either of the movies, and you might neve anything about them unless; tually see the movies themse the theater or on the RHA movi nel next year. Yet don't let tl that these movies are virtual unl scare you away; they have tl soundtracks since "Singles." "Clerks" is a full, whopp tracks, 13 of which are songs likes of Alice in Chains, Bad R Love Among Freaks and Soi lum. The best songs on this CI by any above but by Golden Sn Seaweed. Golden Smog rema] Bad Company standard "Sh Star," and Seaweed does a vei MLiSIP fw&aSm i MHSjjr ,- m-Trare-j^mBTM ^y/WlB j'^^'-"'"- v*^^m^^|wor|ywr r Hfm ^^dPPjjjjHBg?/ i <%?z_ n 256-66 r 26, 1994 tfrniins: tn hnlri Pri W AAVAML JL. JL? ter r~^?I to uni SC are simila i prayer groups Praise Night ld??i said. t8p.m. mdwill where Longstreet Theatre ativei i record- when Friday night, 8 p.m. ^ ifl _ music is Dana how much Free ?t eleased 1 version mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm lives ( cert he happt among the groups, but they are now TlCaroli try*n8 to reach out to each other. togeth owship "This campus has 28,000 students, Satur jnter_ and if we can somehow come togeth- mas e ) Cam- er for a unified voice, it could get the these yjaviga- message out of what we are trying to Fi say, Gentry said open 1 rv said Henry Deneen, one of many or- locate ivision ganizers> said the organizations hope Greer icks nice changi Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way," Jesi aff Writer which should encourage all of Bill Clin- "Co: ton's fans to buy this CD. the Definitely the most interesting and a co entertaining factor in this soundtrack call le song are the seven tracks that are taken Pati 't seem directly from the movie dialogue. The 195 for the quips are short and range from disle feels cussing the Muppets to renting porn thir sound- movies. They give some indication >rt that that "Clerks" may be a good movie, dcii go seek but they also cause a bit of a problem, le new It's like being with a group of people j^b A .45." who are metaphysically and platoniem ad- cally braided through some inside jokes, . ssetwo and you don't have the slightest idea sr hear 0f whatfs going on. But Alice in Chains e* you ac- ga(j Religion is worth a little awk- anc Ives at wardness. aw? echan- Like "Clerks," "Love & A .45" has the he fact a soundtrack that is, in a nutshell, mowns ?ri/?lrprl awpsnme (for all vnn Massa le best duetts students out there). There is or a on not one bad song on this soundtrack, , which even the "Forrest Gump" sound- or " J. e track can't brag about. The Flaming s^v j1 Asv- Lips, Meat Puppets, The Jesus and trai v Mary Chain, The Reverend Horton mu and Heat, April's Motel Room, FSK with list kes the David Lowery (from Cracker), Butt- mo1 looting Lole Surfers and Johnny Cash all have of tl *sion of son88 on this CD. Good songs at that. "Cl< The best songs on this CD are the the |r Fanqs for rememt J us throughout the I U/e u/oufd like to f ijou to take a bit f of oruj purchase i store.** Receive of free fangs ar J October 24 (IfM tJWj 'items of yoi IiImIVHI "(excluding textbook Uj|UUJ Free fangs and w/ith c l66 ^ I lise Night teona regular basis and throw lr events. le thought it would be a good o unify the campus," Deneen Plus we wanted to do it in proxto Halloween because of the negconnotation with it." le two-hour event will feature testimonies and skits, think that God is moving in the >f students the way that hasn't aied before," Deneen said, le groups will also be tailgating ler at the USC-Tennessee game day and are planning a Christvent in the Horseshoe later in m ester. iday night's event is free and to public. Longstreet Theater is sd at the corner of Sumter and le streets. e of pace is and Mary Chain track called me On," which sounds typical of band. Courtney & Western sing untry western song (imagine that) ed "I Am in Love," which is very 3y Cline-ish. Roger Miller (think O's) has a song on the CD called ng of the Road," which is somelg like Bobby Daren's "Mack the fe" from a musical aspect. Yet unbtedly the best song on the entire is Kim Deal (The Breeders) and i Pollard's rendition of "Love Hurts," ch you might remember from jur high dances, i.e. slow dances, il's voice is extremely beautiful, I the duet takes the cheesiness ly from the original recording. It's kind of song that makes you dessed, but can help you through anylg from being stood up for a date i relationship in general. Who even knows when "Clerks" Love & A .45" will make it to the er screen, but go get their sound:ks because thev are full of erood * ? o sic that doesn't grow old after you en to the CDs the first time. If a rie's soundtrack is any indication he overall worth of a movie, then irks" and Love & A .45" are worth $5 ticket price. rap* I thru October 31 jr choice with stickers is and discounted merchandise) Sprint Instont FoncorcT mi) purchase !e supplies last)