[cybmole]

my final comment - I agree that discussion should be put to bed. When I read a "free" book from a public library it had been paid for ( .i.e someone had bought it & put it on the shelf ). it just was not paid for by me.

what I was getting at in my earlier post was that I was brought up to think that books were something you borrowed from a library and read for free. & that only very rich people went to bookshops & bought the things. I read voraciously in childhood & teenage years. must have gone thru the entire SF shelf. It never felt like "stealing"

in my ideal world there'd be living grants for creativity & the output would be free to all. Get rid of the competitive world of publishers in which most creatives starve & a very few have far too much money. just let the folks who create art, be it poems, paintings, stories, music have enough money ( from state funds) to ba able to focus on their art.