Quote:

I can't honestly say I don't have any cracked software, but the single one I have was sent to me by the company I originally bought it from (when their agreement with iLock terminated.. and they couldn't get me a response for it when I re-installed Windows)
So I don't feel like I pirated anything; I actually paid for it first!



This is sort of what I meant when I mentioned LETTER OF THE LAW vs SPIRIT OF THE LAW

The spirit of most laws is to protect the rights of somebody. For example, a stop sign exists so people won't threaten the safety of somebody by driving through a busy intersection. But the logic gets muddy at 3 am when there's nobody on the road and you pull up to a stop sign on an icy hill. Do you stop because the letter of the law says stop? Or do you honor the spirit of the law, knowing that driving through a deserted intersection at 3 am puts nobody in danger? (I like to think that the anal retentive types will stop anyway, but the rational thinkers will proceed cautiously. But for the record, even at 3 am the police will give you a ticket if you fail to stop. Don't ask how I know this)

Likewise for downloaded music. In the past you bought lots of albums. The copyright law allowed you to make a backup of the music you bought... but there was no convenient media with which to make your backup. So, if you're like most people, you bough the same music multiple times on different media.

If you later downloaded somebody else's MP3 backup of a song you already bought 4 times on vinyl, 8 track , cassette and CD, are you a pirate? By the letter of the law, yes... but by the spirit of the law you are accessing a backup of the song that you already bought, and you are entitled to have a backup by law. The law doesn't say you had to be the person who burned the backup.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0