What's the matter, Paul? Didn't your mama teach you the difference between right and wrong?

Recording a movie off TV and then selling it or otherwise using it for profit is stealing. Recording off TV and watching later, with or without friends, is not. Giving for free a tape to a friend to watch what he could have watched for free off the air is not. Dubbing a copy of that CD for your friend is stealing. If you're going to do it, don't advertise it on a public bulletin board.

Using email instead of long distance... well I guess that only shows how low some people will stoop to justify their actions. Or maybe it shows you just don't have a clue. What's the connection between choosing between two different legal forms of communication and stealing software?

Suit yourself. Good software doesn't just happen. Real people work hard to create good programs. Just because they are easy to copy doesn't make it right to steal them. Your twisting of the words of the licensing agreement doesn't make it right. Your lame justification about test driving doesn't cut it either. Wilson Software offers free demos of all their programs at http://www.wilsonsw.com/demo.html.

Steve's original request was to purchase a program someone no longer wanted. That is legal, provided the seller does not keep a copy. Making copies of programs for your friends, or "loaning" them your program and pretending you don't know they are copying it, is no different from walking into JC Penneys and walking out with an "extra" pair of jeans. It's a crime. It's less of a crime than armed burglary, and more of a crime than roulette harvesting. It's certainly nothing to be proud of on a public bulletin board. Of course it's easier to get away with stealing software. What keeps you from shoplifting (assuming you don't shoplift)? Knowing it's wrong, or the fear of getting caught?

In a group of people who would express outrage at someone stealing their scans and otherwise illegally competing on eBay, I am very disappointed more people don't know how bootlegging hurts real people, just like us, that write the programs that make this electronic world sing. Don't they have the right to profit from their labor? The more "socially acceptable" bootlegging is, the more people will find other lines of work to feed their families and the less good software will be available for you to pirate.