Courtesy to magickcanoe.com
By Bala Samson
Isaiah 51:7-8 “Listen to me, you who know the right from wrong and cherish my laws in your hearts: don’t be afraid of people’s scorn or their slanderous talk. For the moth shall destroy them like garments; the worm shall eat them like wool; but my justice and mercy shall last forever, and my salvation from generation to generation.”
God today wants us to know the right from wrong and cherish His laws in our hearts. Did you know using pirated softwares is illegal? It starts out innocently enough with somebody asking you to install your copy of Office XP on their system. Next thing you know that Office XP CD has found its way on to more systems than you’d care to know about. What’s wrong with that? Unless you have enough licenses for the software, all that innocent copying is completely illegal and the OTHER NAME FOR IT IS THEFT. Friend, let us not be ignorant of this stealing which is happening around the world but today I warn you to away from it.
Using pirated software is a moral and ethical issue. After all, how can we tell our children that it is unethical to cheat when adults readily use illegal software to run the computers? Software piracy takes several forms. The most common method involves making a copy of a program to give to a friend. Seems innocent enough but it is illegal. The Internet has made it very easy to steal software. You can find anything you want on the Internet. It contains a rich treasure of illegal treasure. May be you ask now what do I do?
- Conduct your own audit of all the software you are using.
- If you have a computer at home and if you have not purchased the Office XP software that you are currently using, then remember you have a stolen item in your home. Remove it right away and buy it from approved vendors. Even if you are delaying in purchasing the software, don’t delay in removing the pirated software. Remember, you are using something for which you have not paid for.
- Buy the software from approved vendors and keep the license numbers on file.
- Don’t fall into the trap of doing what the world is doing by stealing software.
- Never make use of what is known as ‘peer to peer’ (P2P) resource sharing software (examples are limewire,WinMX, Kazaa, Azureus, Bearshare, Zango, Morpheus etc.) for illegally downloading songs, books, movies or anything that is required to be paid for. There are numerous arguments for and against this, as these involve one person paying for some product, and sharing them for all, on the net. Hence it may be immensely profitable to get things freely. However ok it might seem, it hurts the interest of the producers of these products, who lose out on revenues immensely. The real motive that most people go for such resource exchange is to avoid paying money, and hence even be considered equal to software piracy (another name for theft).
- If you are not sure about what you have on your computer, don’t ignore this message which has been brought to your desk through the Holy Spirit, call a friend who is proficient on this subject and clarify it with him.
There are some sins which are large and obvious but there are some sins which are secret, sins like the moth …white, soft, noiseless, and delicate, that lay their eggs in the secret places of the imagination. They are quiet, until one day they hatch out moral moths, silent and noiseless like their mother, but with teeth as sharp and vicious as Satan’s which will cut the holy fabric of character and leave it useless as a moth-eaten garment.
