Well, my concern is not that of getting caught, but a matter of conscience toward God, as in "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme," (1 Peter 2:13).
Which of course is conditional upon lack of conflict with what God states, but although I do not agree with the work of Christian ministries being copyrighted so that one is a criminal if they copy and share it for free, yet as regards secular work, I believe that one who writes code for a living, thereby providing a service for others, has a right to earn profits off of it just as much as one who invents a better mouse trap.
The problem is that software can easily be replicated and shared, thus removing sales (though making the author more well-known) of the product or the license to use it.
This restriction would be like saying that only certain brand radios, CD players, or DVD players are allowed to be used to play these mediums.
I if you wanted to produce your own DVD player, you are sppsd to license CSS support from the DVD Copy Control Association, while and those who publicly transmit copyrighted material are supposed to pay royalties to the artist. In Linux and programs like the VLC player, libdvdcss is used to hack the CSS 40-bit encryption. Which circumvention is illegal, if not prosecuted in the case of private persons.
Yet before knowing this I have used the VLC player or the like, while I also must have more than one backup copy of web pages that are copyrighted (which is illegal according to the letter), and have watched some videos that TMK apparently did not have explicit permission from the owners to do, but which I hope to avoid doing in the future.
Which is not to say that I agree with the excessive restrictions. I feel that if you are going to display something in public then you should expect it to be recorded in totality and multi-copied to read, watch or hear again, if not to the public at large, and that there should be no restriction on that. Likewise if you purchase a DVD or music. "Fair use" usually only allows portions of a work to be used in commentary, reviews and some other purposes.
Anyway, i am both expressing my desire as well as my discontent.
I knew that was the case. :)
But while a shovel is designed to dig holes it can also be used to commit murder. But until someone actually does this they are innocent in both the eyes of the law and the eyes of the lord. Just because it “can” be used in such a way to commit a crime, it does not mean that just owning a shovel already makes you guilty of a crime. Same as with a firearm. I think if you only use them as they are meant to be used in a legal way you can have a clear conscience.
Anmd by the way I forgot, But the mint cinnamon DVD player is VLC media player.