Pirates and Property Rights

by Gary McGath

Software piracy has become a household word and a household crime. People who wouldn't think of sneaking merchandise out of a store or burgling a house regularly obtain copies of computer programs which they haven't paid for. Why does this happen, and what is necessary to stop it?

The pirate has a ready set of excuses for his actions: prices are too high; the company doesn't provide decent support; I'm only going to use the program once in a while. But what really makes software piracy seem less bad than other kinds of theft is that nothing is physically taken. There is no immediate, physical effect on the inventory or productive capacity of the creator of a piece of software if someone 500 miles away copies a disk and starts using it.

People tend to think of property as a material thing, and thus have a hard time regarding a computer program (as opposed to the disk it resides on) as property. But property is not a concept pertaining to matter alone. Ownership is a concept which arises out of the fact that people live by creating things of value for their own use or for trade with others. Creation, in this sense, does not mean bringing matter into existence, but rather changing the form of matter in accordance with an idea and a purpose.

Most commonly, the actual cost of creating goods is concentrated in the production of individual items. With software, unlike furniture or cars or computers, the reverse is true; the cost of producing copies is negligible compared with the cost of devising the form of the product.

In both cases, though, the only way a producer can benefit from offering his product in trade is for others to respect his right to it and to obtain it only on his terms. If people are going to make the production of software a fulltime occupation, they must and should expect a return for their efforts from the people who benefit thereby. If they do not receive any benefit, they will have to switch to a different sort of activity if they want to keep eating.

But what does this mean to the would-be user of software? He will seldom be caught and punished; his particular act of copying isn't likely to push a software publisher over the edge; and the risk of disapproval isn't great. In most cases, people can openly talk about their acts of piracy without suffering criticism.

But there is a more basic deterrent to theft than the risk of getting caught or of suffering disapproval. A person can fake what he is to others, but not to himself. A person cannot escape the knowledge of whether his existence is sustained by his own efforts, or whether he is a dependent who relies on the productive ability of others and on their blindness to the fact that he is living off them.

I am not speaking here of conscience -- there are people who apparently have none -- but of something even more fundamental, self-knowledge. A person knows whether or not he is living by his own efforts. If he isn't, he knows that he is depending on other people's ignorance or willingness to pretend they haven't noticed. He may not feel guilty because of this, but he will always feel helpless and out of control. If he attempts to rationalize his actions, he becomes dependent on his own self-ignorance as well.

Thieves who abandon the pretense of honesty often fall back on the pretense of being smart: "It's stupid to buy something when you can just take it." But this is also a pretense; they know that their own "cleverness" works only because of the "stupidity" of others who pay for what they buy and who don't notice or care about the thieves. They are counting on the failure of the very people whose successful efforts they use.

The best defense against software piracy lies neither in physical hindrances to copying nor in stiffer penalties. The primary deterrent to theft in stores -- at least in the more peaceful neighborhoods -- isn't the presence of guards and magnetic detectors, but the fact that most people have no desire to steal. The best way to stop piracy is to instill a similar frame of mind among software users. This means breaking down the web of excuses by which pirates justify their actions, and leaving them to recognize what they are. Ultimately, this is the most important defense against any violation of people's rights; without an honest majority, no amount of effort by the police will be effective.