Copyright and Fair Use LR

Part I: Computers and Software

I have a great deal of opinion on this whole section, and unsurprisingly it is the one section where I got all the fair use answers correct. In my experience this branch of copyright law is by far the most straightforward, the most easy to secure, and the most abused by larger bodies. I worked for a company in Massachusetts that did not want to pay for many licenses of the various software used by its people, so they created CD sleeves full of bootlegged software. The worst part of this was that this company was a network management contractor. Companies hired this contractor to manage their computer networks instead of having their own administrator on site. The various administrators used their CD sleeves of software at the various sites on their list, so the bootlegging affected a ripple effect of companies.

While I may feel that certain software manufacturer's charge a premium and outrageous amount of money for licenses' to software that only has a limited shelf life before it is out of date, I do not condone breaking the law. It is like saying that murder is condoned because the victim was a rapist. Where does it end if we do not live by the rules and laws that we create. We must practice what we preach and have the decency to stand up to wrongdoers.