Does it ever cease?

[Cymric]

@redrumloa:

Is the official policy written down somewhere? I tried to find it, but couldn't seem to locate any such document. I have no intention of starting a discussion about the policy, by the way: I am just curious as to what the official policy is, exactly.

[Cymric]

Cyberus wrote:
Despite the fact that theft is theft is theft, I still find it difficult to say that stealing a pear from an orchard as you walk along the road is as 'wrong' as some #### breaking into an old lady's house and stealing the last gift given to her by her late husband.

Interesting. Now we extend the pear orchard example a little bit. Of course the farmer won't mind if it's just me who takes away a single pear during the time the fruit is hanging on the trees. But now everyone in a moderate sized town decides 'Ack, it's just a single pear...'. Betcha the farmer will put up fences, and call the cops when he sees someone taking 'just a single pear'... You can apply the same principle to, for example, warez or music swapping. Mind, I'm not saying who is wrong or right (especially in the last two cases); it's just to make you think about the ethics of grand scale theft, even when everyone thinks the little thing they steal doesn't do any harm ;-).