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Comment by beeboobaa | Hacker News Reader

You steal source code from your past employers?

I hear what you're saying here, but one of the ways we've been able to successfully preserve software was because, even though folks weren't supposed to keep this stuff around, they did anyway. Business goals rarely align with preservation efforts. While I do know that Microsoft does keep a vault of old software, production materials, etc (I believe they even have a position on staff for a Librarian, or at least they used to), for many other positions, that simply does not exist.

That's both a baseless accusation and a rude one at that.

Additionally, you are confusing stealing with making unauthorized copies.

It's called a rhetorical question.

Can we please stop with the mental gymnastics? Taking something without permission that doesn't belong to you is stealing. It may be justified stealing but it's still stealing.

It's not taking, though. It's copying.

Monks used to write books out by hand. If you were to go to a monastery, and copy a book line by line, you will have taken nothing at all. Nothing will be lost.

It's not taking, it's not stealing. It's just making a copy. You are the one doing gymnastics.

You're taking something that doesn't belong to you and copying it. It's stealing. In order to even make the "unauthorized copy" you mention, you have to take the thing first. That's the stealing.

There is no loss of data on either side. It's not stealing. Your argument is like saying that a picture of the Eiffel Tower is stealing.

Nothing is lost from copying.

Loss of data is irrelevant. If you don't have permission to take something or copy it, then you're stealing. Again, I think the benefits of what happened in this case are obvious so I'm not arguing the morality of this. I just think it's absolutely silly that people are bending over backwards to pretend that this isn't stealing and that the reason we have something that would have been otherwise lost is because someone had to balls to steal it.

It's stealing. You're taking something from the owner without permission. Just stop with the mental gymnastics.

What if you already have access to it and don't need to "take" it from anywhere?

Having access to it is not the same as having permission to take it, make copies of it, or remove it or its copies from the owner.

It is not legally stealing whatsoever. Zero laws that cover "stealing" are applicable to copyright infringement.

No one gives a crap about your pedantry. I never said anything about "legally stealing". They took something that didn't belong to them and that they didn't have permission to give to someone else or copy. That's theft. It's stealing.

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