Illegally copying music, video and software

JohnClay

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Hi I know Christians who copy music, video and software illegally... is that a sin? I guess it is theoretically "theft".
Also I have started a Cert 3 level TAFE course and the staff have no problem with copied software and get us to install it including using the serial numbers from the associated text file. There are also many cracked games on their server - I think they were put there by Diploma-level students.
Should I report them? - assuming I was a Christian and wanted to do the Christian thing.
It is related to the idea of there being "absolute morality" vs "relative morality".
 
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Tom 1

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Hi I know Christians who copy music, video and software illegally... is that a sin? I guess it is theoretically "theft".
Also I have started a Cert 3 level TAFE course and the staff have no problem with copied software and get us to install it including using the serial numbers from the associated text file. There are also many cracked games on their server - I think they were put there by Diploma-level students.
Should I report them? - assuming I was a Christian and wanted to do the Christian thing.

Lol there is nothing theoretical about it, it is theft. Theft of intellectual property is no different to stealing something from a shop.
Whether or not you want to report your course provider is another question.
 
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.Mikha'el.

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It is technically theft. I wouldn't do it. And please refrain from uploading content from those sites. As for downloading course content, I'd call it a waste of time. There's no way to determine who copied the material, and for why, and what was done with it. The police are not going to do anything about it.
 
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JohnClay

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....And please refrain from uploading content from those sites.
The files are on one of the TAFE servers - though there are associated text files that mention what sites more of them can be downloaded from.

As for downloading course content, I'd call it a waste of time. There's no way to determine who copied the material, and for why, and what was done with it. The police are not going to do anything about it.
There are only two teachers involved this semester. I heard that the other teacher is the one that is responsible for the contents of the drive. My teacher knows there are illegal games and applications on the server and he just suggests that people downloading the games run it on a "virtual" operating system or a separate laptop just in case it has a trojan or whatever.

Even if the police aren't interested maybe the TAFE is interested that their teachers are promoting illegal activities.
 
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Dave-W

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Hi I know Christians who copy music, video and software illegally... is that a sin?
Yes. We are instructed by both Peter and Paul to obey the laws of the land insofar as they do not prevent us from obeying God. That kind of download is illegal so it is a sin.

Romans 13:1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

1 Peter 2:13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.​
 
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GreekOrthodox

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It is one thing not to use what you believe to be illegal software but you might want to check to find out the licensing. As to reporting them... how do you know that a particular piece of software is illegal? One thing to consider is that some software is abandonware and may not have a proper copyright owner anymore. It might be a shareware version, it might be unsupported or off of media that cannot be used anymore. Personally, I still own several keys for Windows 7 Professional that I have from Microsoft on a now-defunct Microsoft perk for Microsoft Certified System Engineers. Does that make those keys illegal as I can reuse them as I need to considering that the MS program no longer exists? If you bought a game with a CD key from someone, you probably dont legally own that software either unless you have purchase slip with your name on it.

https://www.networkworld.com/article/2251718/business-software-alliance-dirty-tricks-update.html
 
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JohnClay

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It is one thing not to use what you believe to be illegal software but you might want to check to find out the licensing.
We were told to use an illegally downloaded version of VMware with a text file showing the serial numbers and details about a piracy website.

As to reporting them... how do you know that a particular piece of software is illegal?
They clearly come from illegal sources such as "torrents" - you can tell by the naming of the files and the text files. Also the games the teacher has no problem the class accessing are new games that don't have a demo or shareware version - often they have "cracks" to get them to work.
 
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JohnClay

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Is there an educational license or other legal loophole they are exploiting, given the nature of the class?
The teacher says they have a license for VMware though the installation files are obviously from a torrent. The games that people are copying off of the network drive wouldn't be legal.
 
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Sketcher

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The teacher says they have a license for VMware though the installation files are obviously from a torrent. The games that people are copying off of the network drive wouldn't be legal.
Did he share why he is having you use the torrent file?
 
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JohnClay

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Did he share why he is having you use the torrent file?
The class was having problems using Hyper-V so the teacher was in a hurry to get the class using VMware so we just used the version he found on the server.
 
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Hi I know Christians who copy music, video and software illegally... is that a sin? I guess it is theoretically "theft".
Also I have started a Cert 3 level TAFE course and the staff have no problem with copied software and get us to install it including using the serial numbers from the associated text file. There are also many cracked games on their server - I think they were put there by Diploma-level students.
Should I report them? - assuming I was a Christian and wanted to do the Christian thing.
It is related to the idea of there being "absolute morality" vs "relative morality".
"diploma level students"? I'm not sure what you mean. Cracking DRM doesn't require any specialized training that is available only to postgrads. As far as the morality of using cracked software (or watching torrented movies, or listening to torrented music) That's an exercise for the user. As for the practicality of demonizing people who do so, well, if it weren't for people who got their start cracking this stuff, western Cyber Security would be in a pretty terrible state. Virtually everyone in the security sector knows at least half of what they know by "breaking the law".
 
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The class was having problems using Hyper-V so the teacher was in a hurry to get the class using VMware so we just used the version he found on the server.
VM ware has a free version that is torrentable and freely distributable.
 
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We were told to use an illegally downloaded version of VMware with a text file showing the serial numbers and details about a piracy website.


They clearly come from illegal sources such as "torrents" - you can tell by the naming of the files and the text files. Also the games the teacher has no problem the class accessing are new games that don't have a demo or shareware version - often they have "cracks" to get them to work.
"torrents" are not illegal. Most of my open source legal software is obtained via torrent.
 
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jacks

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I have a T-Shirt that says "Friends don't let friends use VMWare". Think reference to how buggy it was in the early days.

To the OP, Yes your school should by legal full version copies of everything the students use...of course they will have to raise your tuition a bit. :)
 
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JohnClay

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"torrents" are not illegal. Most of my open source legal software is obtained via torrent.
Torrents that are shared on pirate [second name] (mentioned in the text file) are usually illegal especially if they have serial numbers included, etc.
"diploma level students"? I'm not sure what you mean
I mean they do courses like "Diploma of Information Technology Systems Administration".

Cracking DRM doesn't require any specialized training that is available only to postgrads
I'm not saying they created the cracks - just that they copied the cracked games onto the server.
 
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