(I'm just going to dispute a couple points here, leebase, I tend to agree with most of your other points
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Originally Posted by leebase
While it's true that "every pirated copy does not equate to a lost sale" -- it is NOT true that "pirated copies never result in lost sales".
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I don't think that anyone is seriously alleging the comment above that I bolded-out. No one is saying "never" as if it applies to all instances.
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lol! "You Go Guuurl". All this smokescreen about folks not knowing they are stealing is just hogwash. Folks steal all the time when they think that nobody sees them and they can get away with it.
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I don't think that it's "hogwash" because you're using your own definition of "stealing". If they truly don't see it as "stealing", because of the rationale they are using, then the reality of their actions makes your labeling of it as being "stealing" just as much "hogwash" to them.
I also don't think that people steal all the time when "they think they can get away with it" because I don't agree that that's the rationale most use in cases involving ebooks. Readers, prior to the introduction of ebooks, were used to either buying their books or - and this is important - borrowing them from free from the local library or sharing books with friends. There is a long-term culture of sharing books already in existence, a culture which doesn't exist involving new cars, TV's, and all the other items trotted out when people trot out to make sarcastic comparisions. Which is why, I think, that a lot of people don't see what they do as "stealing" and are not going to see it as "stealing" no matter how much it might offend the sensibilities of others here.
The problem with threads that involve this topic is that it's hard to get a real sense of who does what and why they do it. Given the unclear legal status of downloading ebooks from alternative sources, most people of sense are not going to say outright and want it written down in black-and-white and eternally available on the internet the proof that they obtain ebooks that way - even if they think they are totally within their rights to do so. It's not a matter of feeling a sense of guilt as it is of seeing examples of industries going after low-hanging fruit in legal proceedings where they are trying to get a precedent set, and rightfully wanting to avoid that situation for themselves. I would even go so far to say that some, who are thinking several chess moves ahead, might even throw up a smokescreen and feign outrage (I'm not directing this comment toward anyone specific here) over the whole idea.
