Comments on: Stealing

By: ltbugaf

ltbugaf — Mon, 01 May 2006 21:47:18 +0000

Kim, unless I am heavily sedated, your original post asked, “Is it stealing to print off a personal document at work (like a resume or a baptismal programme)?”

My reply, in comment #10, was that if the printing involves taking of toner, paper, electricity and machine wear (or any one of those things) and if it is done without the permission of the owner of that which is taken, then it is stealing.

If you know someone who’s found a way to produce copies at work without using toner, paper, or electricity, and without causing wear to a machine, please let me know. (Especially if it’s a Canadian inventor. Their protections on intellectual property appear rather weak, so I may be able to patent the invention for myself!)

By: Kim Siever

Kim Siever — Mon, 01 May 2006 21:41:15 +0000

Nowhere in my post did I say anything about taking something from someone else as being an example of illegitimacy.

By: ltbugaf

ltbugaf — Mon, 01 May 2006 21:36:54 +0000

By which, you mean the example YOU used in the original post.

By: Kim Siever

Kim Siever — Mon, 01 May 2006 21:33:36 +0000

I was commenting on the example you used to illustrate illegitimacy.

By: ltbugaf

ltbugaf — Mon, 01 May 2006 21:28:46 +0000

Since you already gave the exact context, I rather thought that was the one you were discussing. Are you talking about some other context? Or are you talking about making prints/copies of personal material on company time using an employer’s equipment?

By: Kim Siever

Kim Siever — Mon, 01 May 2006 21:25:16 +0000

Taking it without the permission of the owners isn’t necessarily illegitimate, depending on the context. For example, music sharing is not illegal in Canada.

By: ltbugaf

ltbugaf — Mon, 01 May 2006 21:19:03 +0000

“Stealing requires intent. If you intend to get something through illegitimate means, then you are stealing.”

If you intend to get something (such as toner, paper, and the benefit of wear and tear on a machine) through illegitimate means (such as by taking it without the permission of the owners of the toner, paper and machine) then you are stealing.

So it IS stealing. Thanks for clearing that up, Rick.

By: Sally

Sally — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 13:22:40 +0000

By: rick

rick — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 19:03:53 +0000

Is ‘everyone’ your manager as well.

If management does it and makes no bones about it when other people do it, I’d probably chalk it up to an ‘unwritten policy’; ergo okay.

By: Kim Siever

Kim Siever — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 18:57:48 +0000

If there is no policy, but “everyone does it”, does that “[indicate] some personal use is OK”?