IT Article I chose: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/07/25/tech-company-accuses-us-navy-software-piracy-seeks-596-million-damages.html
(I know if from FOX and they’re not much of a reliable source of information
but wired also published a small article a while ago, on regards to the same
thing.)
Augustine (5th century CE, North Africa)
“Surely all those who think that they are enjoying possessions
they have acquired lawfully, but who don’t know how to use them, can be
convicted by us of keeping what belongs to someone else. They certainly do not
belong to someone else if they are held lawfully; but lawfully implies justly,
and justly implies well. If so, then everything that is possessed wrongly
belongs to someone else; but if someone uses possessions wrongly, he possesses
them wrongly. You can see then how many people ought in fact to return property
that isn’t theirs, and how few can be found who ought to have property returned
to them! Wherever such people exist, the more justly they own property, the
more they despise it... In the meantime, however, there is toleration for the
injustice of those in wrongful possession, and certain laws have been
established among them, known as ‘civil laws’. These are not intended to make
them use possessions rightly, but rather to make them less oppressive in
misusing them.”
This is my interpretation in contrast with the text:
This is a good example on how the Navy had a set of licenses and
had an agreement with Bitmanagement and thus they proceeded to use the licenses
on many computer thinking they could because they already had a contract with
the company. This is tricky as they had access to the software and are a client
of Bitmanagement for the trial version on the software but at the same time
they were using it wrongfully. Bitmanagement agreed upon continue to provide
services to their client but also filed a lawsuit. Augustine’s has a strong
point on how ambiguous this could be. He explains how someone that does not
belong to someone then belongs to someone else but in IT this is a bit more
problematic. IT is very diverse and rules not always apply to the same group of
software/devices. We do have Open Source/Free Software and at the same time we
have Copy Rights. I think that what the Navy did is not correct even though I
believe in OpenSource/FreeSoftware because they had a contract with a company
that was going to provide de service and run their maintenance or
troubleshooting if needed and that’s legal binding. Now, if the Navy had
approached to an OpenSource/FreeSoftware company to obtain this type of
software, things would have been different. One thing is to try to use software
for free or to think one has the entitlement to infringe Copy Rights laws and
procedures and another one is taking advantage of a company that has a
pre-existing relationship with the Navy and abuse their resources. Not one or
the other is right, both are terrible wrong due to the circumstances and the
law already establish to define the uses of proprietary software.
I think Augustine would also highlight how it his phrase:” In the meantime, however, there is toleration
for the injustice of those in wrongful possession, and certain laws have been
established among them, known as ‘civil laws’. These are not intended to make
them use possessions rightly, but rather to make them less oppressive in
misusing them.” The Navy proceeded as if rules didn’t apply to their
institution. How having the trial license would make the Navy the lawfully user
of the licenses but then how their abuse put them in the spot by “wrongfully
“misusing a resource that was not theirs anymore. As Augustine described as
“possessing the licenses wrongly as they rightfully belonged to someone else”.
In this case, the licenses belonged to “Bitmanagement”. He said expressed these
thoughts hundreds of year ago and they remain true today, now that’s
impressive. It almost looks like time has not past at all.
