I try to buy whenever possible. A vintage software purchase is not just the bytes, but the manual and packaging. Often I get more pleasure from reading the manual than using the application. Apple II and early Mac developers were often quirky folks, and there can be a lot of humour and computing intelligence in a manual. Beagle Brothers are an obvious example.
I voted for option 3. I have the money to buy stuff and believe that anyone who has hoarded a copy of some useful software deserves compensation, however nominal. The existence of a second hand or NOS software market encourages sales and keeps the old apps alive. We all know that some software is impossible to locate, even on the darkest side of the internet: many people post here in search of drivers for early Mac hardware. If old software is universally considered as "free", the incentive to sell installation disks and software packs diminishes, and some software will be lost entirely. I don't know whether it is still online, but Herb Johnson wrote a great essay about how free copies of S-100 documentation could make it impossible to make money from manuals in which he had invested substantially.
On the other hand, if software is difficult to find, I'll run a pirate copy until a legitimate copy becomes available. And it is a difficult problem to balance, from both a moral or economic point of view. I publish a few scanned manuals on the web that are still subject to copyright. The copyright owners no longer have a commercial interest in the products, but the manuals may help a few hobbyists. Technically I have broken the law, but my actions are morally reasonable. And if somebody popped up to say that they own 50 manuals that they wish to sell and my action is affecting their business, I'd pull the download.
I voted for option 3. I have the money to buy stuff and believe that anyone who has hoarded a copy of some useful software deserves compensation, however nominal. The existence of a second hand or NOS software market encourages sales and keeps the old apps alive. We all know that some software is impossible to locate, even on the darkest side of the internet: many people post here in search of drivers for early Mac hardware. If old software is universally considered as "free", the incentive to sell installation disks and software packs diminishes, and some software will be lost entirely. I don't know whether it is still online, but Herb Johnson wrote a great essay about how free copies of S-100 documentation could make it impossible to make money from manuals in which he had invested substantially.
On the other hand, if software is difficult to find, I'll run a pirate copy until a legitimate copy becomes available. And it is a difficult problem to balance, from both a moral or economic point of view. I publish a few scanned manuals on the web that are still subject to copyright. The copyright owners no longer have a commercial interest in the products, but the manuals may help a few hobbyists. Technically I have broken the law, but my actions are morally reasonable. And if somebody popped up to say that they own 50 manuals that they wish to sell and my action is affecting their business, I'd pull the download.