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How to roll your own Mac for under $240

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Re: How to roll your own Mac for under $240

#31

Post by rms »

hangten wrote: post #29
rms wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh no... not... software piracy! Also, stealing/not-stealing blah blah blah.

Consider HN is a hacker + entrepreneurial site you could see why people would not welcome Reddit/Digg support for piracy.

...I'm unclear why you are conflating support for piracy and Digg/Reddit.

I understand the attitudes of those so grossly offended by copyright and DMCA violations. But suggesting copyright infringement doesn't automatically disqualify an article from Hacker News.

Re: How to roll your own Mac for under $240

#32

Post by jackowayed »

dcurtis wrote: post #16
jws wrote: post #4

$240 plus a DMCA violation and stealing a $100 piece of software to end up with a beyond low end Mac that breaks as soon as you perform a system software upgrade (according to the article). Just go the mall early with a brick, you know, when the walkers are getting their exercise. Throw the brick through the window of the Apple store and steal a mini. Its a better machine and Apple probably won't mind since they need…

You are misinformed. See this fantastic diagram: http://i33.tinypic.com/2yor21y.png

Yeah, but with software, there really is no "original" to steal. They can make new copies and ship them to the store for like $0.50 tops.

The real value of software is the information, the compiled code that makes it do something valuable. You're not paying your share towards development costs that make that happen. So you're robbing the company of the money you would pay for the software.

With software, the idea of theft only being taking the physical product is stupid because the physical aspect is practically worthless. Some software isn't even distributed through physical means at all.

Re: How to roll your own Mac for under $240

#33

Post by dmix »

jackowayed wrote: post #32
dcurtis wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are misinformed. See this fantastic diagram: http://i33.tinypic.com/2yor21y.png

Yeah, but with software, there really is no "original" to steal. They can make new copies and ship them to the store for like $0.50 tops. The real value of software is the information, the compiled code that makes it do something valuable. You're not paying your share towards development costs that make that happen. So you're robbing the company of the money you would pay for the software. With software, the idea of…

I don't think he was questioning the value, he was commenting on the use of the word "stealing". Copyright infringement is the better phrase for it.

Re: How to roll your own Mac for under $240

#34

Post by Herring »

dmix wrote: post #33
jackowayed wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but with software, there really is no "original" to steal. They can make new copies and ship them to the store for like $0.50 tops. The real value of software is the information, the compiled code that makes it do something valuable. You're not paying your share towards development costs that make that happen. So you're robbing the company of the money you would pay for the software. With software, the idea of…

I don't think he was questioning the value, he was commenting on the use of the word "stealing". Copyright infringement is the better phrase for it.

Not if you want to tar & feather someone, it's not. Sometimes communication is the least important function of language.

Re: How to roll your own Mac for under $240

#35

Post by [deleted] »

jws wrote: post #4

$240 plus a DMCA violation and stealing a $100 piece of software to end up with a beyond low end Mac that breaks as soon as you perform a system software upgrade (according to the article). Just go the mall early with a brick, you know, when the walkers are getting their exercise. Throw the brick through the window of the Apple store and steal a mini. Its a better machine and Apple probably won't mind since they need…

[deleted]

Re: How to roll your own Mac for under $240

#36

Post by randallsquared »

hangten wrote: post #29
rms wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh no... not... software piracy! Also, stealing/not-stealing blah blah blah.

Consider HN is a hacker + entrepreneurial site you could see why people would not welcome Reddit/Digg support for piracy.

Being a hacker and a sometime entrepreneur doesn't mean that I have to think copyright makes sense. These are quite orthogonal to each other, and I would lose respect for someone if I found that they'd believed copyright invalid until they wanted to make a living off of it.
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