[danielweber]

Let me tell you an anecdote, too. I worked at a startup where we were selling software and that money was what I was using to pay my rent so I wouldn't be homeless and buy food to put in my food hole so my body would not die.

Various people tried to steal our stuff. Every once in a while someone would call us up and tell us what we should give them a free copy because, in a lot more words, "it would generate goodwill." I'm sure they might have even believed what they were saying. But it wasn't their rent money on the line. It was ours.

(Other people would call us and tell us, literally, that they had mailed us a check, so please ship out the software now. The most obvious "we are lying to your face and fuck you if you need money to live" was a military branch that said they couldn't buy a license until we removed our copy protection. After a bunch of negotiation, we finally said "sorry, take it or leave it" and they bought three licenses. Huh.)

I'm not saying that the company is right. But I am saying that that software company is the one with their butts on the line. If you are wrong, absolutely nothing goes wrong for you. But if they listen to your advice and it turns out to be wrong, they lose money, or maybe go out of business. They can't use "goodwill of 'giarc" to pay their lease.

People who have been in the business of selling software learn quickly that people who complain online about proprietary software are not their customers and will never under any circumstances end up as their customers.

[giarc]

You are inappropriately extending my argument to new customers and non existent customers. My argument was that if they saw someone at CERN was using their unlicensed software, the best path might not be to impose a hefty fine on CERN (an existing customer). I never said anything about how to treat a one off person that has stolen your software.