On Thu, Dec 26, 2002 at 06:26:18AM -0500, Bhargav Bhatt wrote:
A criminal is a criminal no matter how many crimes he commits
We can agree to disagree here, but the above statement is not entirely true IMO. That statement amounts to saying that one can compare a petty pickpocket with someone like say Bin Laden. The linux user who uses the occasional .gif is like pickpocket and the Windows user who uses almost all pirated non-free programs for free is like Bin Laden. Decide for yourself if these two are equivalent considering the crimes they are guilty of.
Even I would disagree with you here Bhargav. Let me explain that.
Windows user using pirated windows software => criminal => crime is using software without license Linux user using pirated linux apps => criminal => crime same as above
Osama bin Laden => criminal => crime is 9/11, murder, blah blah ... Pickpocket => criminal => crime is picking a pocket
Legality status with reference to a specific crime is binary. That I believe was what was meant. ciao Abhijeet More