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Software piracy and the Doris Day Syndrome: some legal, ethical and social implications of contemporary conceptions of property

1999; Oxford University Press; Volume: 7; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ijlit/7.1.1

1464-3693

James Couser,

Open Source Software Innovations

In this paper a number of the legal, ethical and social issues raised by our ever increasing reliance upon new technologies are considered and discussed. The spectre of software piracy is examined, along with its relationship to the criminal offence of theft, and the difficulties of ascribing the label 'thief' to those who engage in such conduct are addressed. Particular attention is given to extent to which many large software programmers are, like the robber barons of old, attempting to reinvent themselves as paragons of respectability now that it is in their perceived best interests to do so. Finally, it is suggested that our current conceptions of property are too outdated to adequately balance the competing issues at stake between that information which can legitimately be owned outright, that which can be owned for a given period of time, and that which should always be regarded as being in the public domain.