Quote:
Originally Posted by delphidb96
Two things. First, if the ebook prices are low enough - and charging more than the cost of a mass-market paperback for a regular-release ebook novel is *ALWAYS* too HIGH - then there's little need for most people to 'steal' ebooks. And it isn't stealing if a person has already purchased a dead-tree version and the publisher refuses to release an ebook version. After all, it is legal to scan a book one owns into one's own computer, and downloading a copy from a free download site when one already owns a dead-tree version is morally the same thing - the person is just letting someone else make the scanning effort.
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I really do have to take issue with both those statements, Derek.
1. There are numerous eBooks available for around the US$5 price point, which I believe would be a fair price from virtually anyone's viewpoint (Lauzon excluded, of course). Baen charge US$5 for their individual books, and Fictionwise charge around that for many of their "Multiformat" books.
Does that stop these books being reposted on the Usenet eBook groups and BitTorrent sites? No, it doesn't. Some people are just thieves, full stop.
2. You cannot make a blanket statement that "it is legal to scan a book one owns into one's own computer". It depends where you live (for example, it is specifically NOT legal in the UK) and what you subsequently do with it. It is of course true that you are highly unlikely to be prosecuted for scanning a paper book for your own exclusive personal use, but to make a blanket statement that "it is legal" is really going too far. It is most definitely NOT (IMHO) "morally the same thing" to download an illegally uploaded version, because you are downloading "stolen property".