On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 05:49:50 -0700, Mike Rivers wrote
(in article znr1088246713k@trad):

There's another way of looking at it, though. If someone gives me a
copy of Word, I load it up, don't like it, and deleted it from my
system, I've avoided wasting the cost of a copy, and Microsoft has
avoided having an unhappy customer who might post to all the
newsgroups "Microsoft Word sucks!"
--------------------------------snip----------------------------------

Legally, Mike, you're wrong. Morally speaking, though, I think you're
absolutely in the right, and I do the same thing myself. I will occasionally
borrow a copy of software from a friend, then try it out. If I hate it, I
delete it from my system; if I like it, I go out and buy it. Pretty simple.

There are some companies out there -- Macromedia is one of them -- that
freely let you download full working versions of some fairly expensive
software packages and try them out for 30 days. If you like them, you can
pay X dollars for a serial number that unlocks it, or you can go out and get
a packaged version in a store. I wish more companies would do this.

--MFW