He ruined the lives of many hard-working software developers who relied on selling their code to feed their families.

This was back when programming was a highly skilled and difficult job that only a few could do, so cracking was even more harshly targeting people.

More like telling the whole world "you're not allowed to copy this, because I wrote it" and threatening everyone with imprisonment or fines if you do. So everyone has to buy it through him, or else. To feed his family.

That is what copyright law fundamentally is.

We all learn from other people, just because I came up with an idea, I cannot tell other people "you're not allowed to use it". It violates other peoples natural right to autonomy to do so.

> just because I came up with an idea, I cannot tell other people "you're not allowed to use it".

You're right, ideas are not protected by copyright.

Copyright only protects original works of authorship.

Yes and that's why copyright is a good thing, so you have the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of your intellectual labour.

I dont agree with Copyright and also dont think the punishment was deserved. I also did some cracking and keygens in the 90s (for fun, never released anything).

Nevertheless, my making argument against doing and condoning what this guy did is that, because of those type of actions today we have to deal with SaaS only software that is subscription based and stops working after the company folds (I can still use my Win16 copy of GetRight, thankyou very much).

We got into this sad state because of greed, from both sides of the counter.

No, for a fact, he MADE the lives of such families. If your small time software does not end up being PRE'd somewhere; it doesn't exist. Without the marketing budget of large corporates; you could just forget about competing with them.

Is that quantifiable and verifiable? Are there interviews with software devs whose business was measurably effected by piracy to the point where their life was “ruined”? Genuinely curious to know.

Can you really point to a single other person whose life was ruined other than the guy who went to prison?

Their lives weren't 'ruined', just like nobody's life is 'ruined' when someone (over multiple trips) shoplifts a few thousand (or tens of thousands of) dollars worth of goods from a large store chain.

But someone, somewhere along the way did lose some amount of money.

The fact that the sentence was only 18 months reflects that, somewhat.

That's a rather presumptive over-simplification of what effect software cracking had and has on employed programmers' livelihoods. It's not a direct 1 to 1 relationship between a cracked installation and lost sale, nor does piracy prevention guarantee market relevance. I don't condone consuming pirated software when OSS alternatives exist, but that's not out of sympathy to tech megacorps.

http://bastiat.org/en/petition.html

I like how companies conned the government to enforce what used to be a civil matter into a criminal matter. They don't even have to write a cease and desist letter. Evil genius.

i challenge you to identify a single actual human whose life he "ruined"