it just astonishes me how the world works so hard to justify theft.
Windows is developed, manufactured, marketed, distributed, sold, supported and used as a "product" As a product it has a market value. Value is exchanged in a variety of ways.
As a product, Windows may be stolen and its value as a product reduced for both those that make and sell it and those that license it legitimately. Using Windows, or any product outside the rules is theft, which I call stealing. Take a "digital" copy of it from Best Buy as encoded on a disc and one would rightly be prosecuted for theft. In my state, 250.00 dollars qualifies as a felony.
Chris is quite correct, I have never stolen a thing. I have been so hungry that I did think about stealing food - fruit specifically, but as a boy I offered to work for a meal and did refuse to be fed until I had earned it. Working for very low wages and a meal was common and the best of people sat with you. It took great discipline to display good manners and not eat too fast, or too much. Often people would tip you to others that needed work done. I built an entire library for 15 dollars once. Nice wood and I got to read as many books as I wanted over time. It had a hidden door that led to an inner office, which I think was quite innovative. Brass brads and folded flashing were used to keep out drafts (gaskets as we know them today did not exist back then).
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