poker software = cheating?

[notsosmart]

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Collusion and outright cheating of that sort have nothing in common with gathering data that is publicly available(just ask the sites to send it to you). Everyone has access to this information, and the sites themselves have no problem with your getting it -- some even make it very easy for you to do so.

Lumping these two things together makes it clear you either are thinking in a very sloppy manner or are carelessly casting aspersions -- or both. Your outlook is somewhat akin to equating rape with sex or borrowing with stealing.

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Thanks for the response, but I think you're going a little far. I was merely presenting the question for discussion as I am admittedly not informed on the subject.

I appreciate now from others (especially pt's comments) that PokerTracker is an accepted practice and merely a summation of data that could be requested and otherwise put together. Even while I still do believe that the original intent of this practice was to improve one's own play....the evolution of this is the grey area I am worried about.

However, IMO, having software to keep book on your opponents *while you're not even at the table* (data mining) AND displaying it on top of them right in the poker screen window while you're playing against them.....this still seems to be taking something people should be happy they have available to them and going too far with it. I can see that it is becoming more common to use this software (from all the people posting in this forum), so that has modified my position somewhat. As long as there is no information about the actual cards in play, I guess that is not cheating?

Anyways, as I said at the end of my last post, I just have to think of it more from a making-money point of view rather than thinking about it like a sport where entirely fair-play should rule.

Thanks again all for the comments.