Recently, The Toronto Star published an article entitled 'RCMP seizes BBS, piracy charges pending.' The RCMP have possessed all computer components belonging to the '90 North' bulletin board system in Montreal, Quebec. The board is accused of allowing people the opportunity to download (get) commercial and beta (or commercial) software versions. I feel that the RCMP should not charge people that are linked to computer piracy, because the pirated software offers valuable opportunity to …showed first 75 words of 589 total…

…showed last 75 words of 589 total…the end. Cracking down on software piracy is a waste of societies energy. There is more benefit for everyone the way things are in the present. Users get to view and evaluate it before they pay. Hackers get a opportunity to view other works and learn from the advancements on or find the errors in the beta versions. Software companies get more exposure which in the long run will lead to more revenues for them.