I confess now, that when I was a teenager, I shoplifted. I hung out with a "friend" who's father was pretty high up in the FBI, and my friend assured me that nothing serious would ever happen to us, which of course meant, "him."
We stole candy and model airplane kits mostly. Our reign of crime lasted about 3 weeks, when as you may have guessed, I got caught. They had me in a side room telling me that their new policy was to not call the parents of a juvenile, but instead to call the police directly and let them sort it all out. This was of course a scare tactic to drive the foolishness out of me, and they very reluctantly called my mother (father was not around by then) and had her come and pick me up, with the stern warning that this was my "last chance". So having been as scared as I had ever been in my life I swore off shoplifting. My point is this: Even after all of that, I found it INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO STOP! For a couple weeks after that resolution, I STILL continued to pick something up and stuff it in my pocket. It took an incredible act of will to really stop. Getting something for nothing can be a very addictive thing. I believe this is the problem with street people, with those who make living off welfare a way of life, with those who lie, cheat and steal to get what they feel is "coming to them". And with Software pirates. So what will change their mind? Something terrible that almost ruins their life. I don't suggest that you be the one to make this happen. I only suggest that the problem is not one of practice, but of principle. Clean their computer if you like, but you will not drive the "shoplifter" from them, anymore than beating a fool 7 times in a day with an iron rod will drive the foolishness from them. Bob Sent from my iPad On May 21, 2011, at 2:50 AM, Richmond Mathewson <richmondmathew...@gmail.com> wrote: > This is one of those messages which normally starts off > > "somebody I know has this problem"; which means of course it really > refers to oneself. > > The situation really refers to a friend of my older son's whose parents have > given > them a laptop for University (this young person is going to study in > Germany), and > (as is the norm in Bulgaria) had a friend install PIRATE Windows, MSOffice, > Uncle > Tom Cobbley and all on the thing. > > Morality aside . . . > > My son has told this person that they (the parents) are "silly bu**ers" > sending their > child off to Germany with a laptop packed to the gills with Pirate software. > I have > offered to scrub the laptop and install a friendly Linux distro with Office > Libre, > Uncle Richard Stallman and all. > > This person; having grown up in Pirate-software land cannot see that their > might be > risks (legal!!!!) about merrily turning up at a Uni' in German with a laptop > like "that". > > Would be grateful for advice. > > sincerely, Richmond Mathewson. > > _______________________________________________ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
