The Internet community gets riled up over companies asserting their rights on Internet (which is odd... companies asserting their legal rights being seen as evil while individuals illegally attempting to assert what they believe should be their rights are forces for good...) but simple fact is that it is damaging for a company to allow theft of their licences to go unnoticed. In case of Abandonware, if it can be proven that a company knew their products were being illegally distributed but did nothing about it then copyright over that particular licence can be lost. The revenues lost due to piracy in its many forms are surprisingly enough, damaging to companies.

I think that it's unfortunate that freedom provided by Internet has lead to such abuse but I can see validity of both sides of arguments. Companies want and deserve their revenue for services they provide. Abandonware infringes on a company's copyright and can lead to them losing their licences if they don't hunt down offenders. The consumers on other hand have to pay increasingly steeper and steeper prices for products, something that is often blamed on increasing rate of piracy, which is blamed on continuous increase in prices and whole thing becomes a vicious cycle. CDs are very expensive if you only want one or two songs off CD, which is where online music stores can come into play. There you can purchase licence to a song relatively cheaply without having to pay a lot for an entire CD you that don't particularly want (and they have added upside of having more of money make it back to artists who created music as opposed to corporations that distribute it).

I guess in end everyone has to make their own decision about where they stand between concepts of 'Morally Correct' and 'Legally Correct'. Me personally, I like to stand a little closer to 'Legally Correct' than most. It's been my experience that 'morals' tend to change and warp a lot sooner than law does, and not always for better. If we restrain ourselves on Internet then maybe authorities won't see need to attempt to restrain us. The freedom that is relished so much on Internet may in fact be increased with just a little self-control.

To avoid further scams make sure that you have updated firewall and anti-virus software active on your system at all times. This will make it harder for anyone to install key loggers, Trojans, spyware, or other similar devices intended to retrieve your information. Keep your operating system up to date with latest security patches and updates and be careful where you enter your details. Always look into reputability of site that is requesting your details and keep an eye on lower right-hand corner of your browser. If page you are viewing has a little padlock symbol appear in corner, then it means that your details are being secured by some encryption method. You can double click on icon to get more details if you wish. Sites without padlock icon don't have encryption, which means that your details are a lot easier for malicious crooks to get a hold of. Even if you're sure website is legitimate, it's not a good idea to send your details over an unsecured connection. By way, email does not count as a secure connection, and neither does any instant messaging program, (such as MSN, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, AIM etc.) so don't give out personal details that way either.

Another common scam very similar to phishing involves emailing of promises of great wealth. Seriously, what do you think your chances are of winning lottery, let alone one that you never even entered? Or of some obscure yet ridiculously rich person in Africa dying and you being legally allowed to pick up their money? Or of a foreign prince wishing to smuggle money out of his country using your account? These emails are all scams. I wish it were true that I won three different lotteries every single day, but if you get in contact with people sending these messages they're going to do their utmost to clean out your pockets. Unfortunate as it may sound, 'Please Donate to Charity' emails sent are usually also scams. If you really want to donate money to a charity, look them up and send it usual way, don't respond to a multi-recipient email that may or may not be real. You also shouldn't donate to some random charity that no one has ever heard of before. Some of Internet lowlifes have started up fake charities, 'dedicated to helping Tsunami victims' or similar and are simply pocketing donations.

Everything in this world can be used for either good or evil purposes and Internet is no exception. Staying alert and having just a little bit of Internet know-how can keep you out of harm's way for majority of time, and allow you access to wonderful online services available with relative safety.