(Norm and Holly are at Holly's house, where Holly has just been showing Norm her new word processing program.)
Norm: So you're really in love with the SuperSoft Millenium word processor, Holly?
Holly: Oh, absolutely, Norm! It's just wonderful!
Norm: I think it could be useful to me, too. What did it cost?
Holly: Four hundred ninety-nine dollars.
Norm: Oh. If it were a dollar more it would be way beyond my budget!
Holly: No problem! Here, I'll make a copy for you. I just need to find a blank disk. Here's one!
Norm: No, thanks, Holly---please don't.
Holly: Why not?
Norm: Because that's copyrighted software.
Holly: So?
Norm: You know what copyright is. Books, films, works of art---they're usually protected by copyright. It's illegal for anybody to make copies of the work without the copyright owner's permission. Software like SuperSoft Millenium is protected in the same way.
Holly: Aw, c'm'on, Norm---who's going to know it if we just make one little copy?
Norm: I'm not worried about going to jail. But it wouldn't be right. And you know we can't be happy unless we do the right thing.
Holly: Why wouldn't it be right? And what's that got to do with being happy?
Norm: It wouldn't be right because it would be acting contrary to human nature. And we can't be happy unless we act according to human nature.
Holly: I don't understand what you mean by "acting according to human nature."
Norm: Well, would you agree that we're social animals---that sociality is part of human nature?
Holly: Sure, that's right. There may have been a few "wild children" who grew up without any human contact, but they're definitely not normal. Even Mowgli, in the story, grew up with a wolf family. He wasn't all alone.
Norm: But isn't it also part of our nature that we're individuals, unlike bees and ants?
Holly: What do you mean?
Norm: Social insects act for the good of the hive. A bee, for example, will sting an enemy to protect the hive, even though it rips its own guts out and dies from the stinging. It doesn't have any conception of individual self-interest. But human beings act to achieve their own personal well-being, not just the well-being of the society they belong to. To be happy, we have to find a proper balance between the common good and the individual good. Nobody who's entirely self-centered can be happy---but neither can anyone who's not concerned for his own welfare.
For example, we want to work at an occupation that does good for our community, but we'd be unwilling to work without pay. Likewise, we'd like to have good things for ourselves, but we wouldn't want to steal them. All of this is entirely reasonable, and it's the way that we have to be happy because of this human nature that we have, which is both social and individual.
Holly: Okay, I agree with that.
Norm: If you agree with that, would you also agree that it's a consequence of this human nature that we must justly reward those who provide us with goods?
Holly: Oh, I get it! Because of the individual side of the nature of those who provide the goods---they don't want to spend their whole lives giving good things to others and getting nothing in return. And because of the social side of the nature of those who receive the goods---they don't want to be parasites on society, receiving, but giving nothing in return.
But what's this got to do with copying software? I mean, it's not as though we'd be stealing anything.
Norm: Yes, we would be stealing.
Holly: How can that be? If I steal a bicycle, I'm depriving the owner of that bike, but if I copy a piece of software, doesn't the owner still have it? I mean, the copyright owner has the original of the copied work, right, and I haven't exactly taken it away from him. So how is it stealing?
Norm: Well, what if you sneak into a theater or a ball game without buying a ticket? That would be stealing, wouldn't it?
Holly: Of course!
Norm: But what would you have stolen, actually? What would you have deprived the owner of? A view of the game? The sounds and sights of the show?
Holly: No. The owner still has those, if she ever had them. What the owner's deprived of, in that case, would be the income from the ticket.
Norm: Exactly! It's the compensation or reward that she should have for creating the show. Remember, you wouldn't want to work without pay. Neither do the folks who write software.
Holly: I guess I wouldn't want to deprive a mother of the bread she needs to support her children. But what about that Bill Doors, the owner of SuperSoft? Isn't he one of the richest men in the country? What's a few hundred dollars more or less to him?
Norm: No doubt Bill Doors has too much money. But I'm sure that if SuperSoft earned even more money, they would hire more mothers and fathers (and people without children too) to write more programs.
Holly: But, Norm, do people only write software for money? Don't some programmers write programs just because they love to do it, and then give them away for free?
Norm: That's true, Holly, and we have to distinguish between three kinds of program, at the money end.
Holly: What are they?
Norm: First, there's commercial software, like SuperSoft Millenium. You pay for the package up front, before you open it. The second kind is shareware. Shareware is usually made available on bulletin boards or on the Internet, where people can freely copy it. People can also copy it from the disks of other people who already have a copy. After they try it out, if they like the program enough to keep it, they're expected to pay a fee to the authors. Unlike commercial software companies, the authors of shareware don't try to prosecute those who don't pay; instead, they rely on the user's conscience. The third kind, freeware, is also called public domain software. Freeware is free software. It's distributed in the same ways as shareware, only without money. Sometimes freeware comes with a copyright notice---not so the author can require you to pay money, but so that he can license it in a way that makes it illegal for others to redistribute it for money.
Holly: Wait a minute. If there's all of this freeware out there, do we really need to pay software developers to encourage them to make software?
Norm: What do you think? Of the software you use every day, the software that's most important to you, which programs are commercially developed, and which are freeware?
Holly: Hmm, there's OakTree Ledger and of course SuperSoft Millenium. Also MudFlats PhotoFinish and Mediterranean Presentations. That's all commercial. Then on the freeware side, there's the Star Trek game---that's fun but not important. Oh, yeah, my World Wide Web browser is freeware, too. That's important, as well as fun.
Norm: Don't forget your operating system.
Holly: Won-Doze XCV! That's a lot of weight on the commercial side.
Norm: All of that commercial software wouldn't exist without the profit incentive. Unfortunately, copyright protection is not very effective. According to the Business Software Alliance, of the software sold in the United States, about 40% of the packages are illegal copies; in Japan and Germany, 75% are illegal, and in China, Korea, Taiwan, Spain, and Switzerland, 90% are illegal. The countries where the worst copying occurs are definitely not known for their flourishing domestic software industries.
Holly: No wonder!