Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
That's all fine and dandy, but what if I told you that I wanted to start my own library and freely share all ebooks? This library would not make a profit because nothing would ever be sold, donations would be accepted to cover the costs of electricity.
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I'd urge you not to do it. It would violate the moral rights of authors who want copyright respected. And it could eventually harm you and your innocent family, when, years later, our slow-moving legal system goes from the extreme of ignoring you to the extreme of locking you up.
This kind of web site is a big project. Electricity is a small part of the cost. There is also the cost of the servers. And the cost of the programming services. If you do your own programming, there is the opportunity cost of the time you spend building and maintaining your piracy web site that you could have been earning money for your family some other way.
It is hard for me to see your proposal being less than a full time job, and probably a full time job for several people. You and your staff need to eat and buy housing and get medical care and save for their kids' college bills and pay taxes. Donation-supported in this context amounts to a business model, and thus is no excuse for piracy.