From the "We were just trying to learn stuff" department

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by derangedhermit

Been to Nigeria? Most people are very poor. Infant death is 1 in 10, in bad years. Half the population doesn't make $1000 a year. A person born there today, 2012, can expect to die at age 50. Statistics cannot convey life there to someone who has no acquaintance with such things.

Textbooks? The only thing that would lift most of the children out of a short, squalid life is a one-way ticket to somewhere else.

To use illegal textbooks in Nigeria to incite yet another Internet "discussion" on copyright is in questionable taste, IMHO; "callous" comes to mind. Nothing new for Nigerians; people have been ignoring or taking advantage of them for a long time.

Please pick some other headline to push your agenda.

Well, with countries like Nigeria why not just give the publisher a tax credit in his home country and make it part of foreign aid shelled out by that government to Nigeria?

Such aid makes a lot more sense than big money for project, when most of those funds disappear into the pockets of corrupt politicians, anyway. Books go straight to those who need them. But forced private donations on behalf of the textbook publishers are not acceptable.

[heySkippy]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Well, with countries like Nigeria why not just give the publisher a tax credit in his home country and make it part of foreign aid shelled out by that government to Nigeria?

How many groceries can you buy with a tax credit? Screw that.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by heySkippy

How many groceries can you buy with a tax credit? Screw that.

This is just an example. But with a tax credit you can buy as many groceries as you can buy with the same amount of cash --- unless the company doesn't have enough profits to deduct the full amount.

[Conor]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

If these "pirates" were only trying to distribute these textbooks instead of sell them, should they still be penalized or rewarded??

There is no "if". Nigerian scammers don't just scam foreigners. They have no compunction about preying on their own people, no matter how poor. And I'd be very surprised if they weren't committing other frauds.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by derangedhermit

Been to Nigeria? Most people are very poor. Infant death is 1 in 10, in bad years. Half the population doesn't make $1000 a year. A person born there today, 2012, can expect to die at age 50. Statistics cannot convey life there to someone who has no acquaintance with such things.

Textbooks? The only thing that would lift most of the children out of a short, squalid life is a one-way ticket to somewhere else.

To use illegal textbooks in Nigeria to incite yet another Internet "discussion" on copyright is in questionable taste, IMHO; "callous" comes to mind. Nothing new for Nigerians; people have been ignoring or taking advantage of them for a long time.

Please pick some other headline to push your agenda.

And if those textbooks were detailing how to grow food in Nigeria more efficiently? Or detailing low cost/high quality construction methods?

The world is just one big slippery slope.

[DiapDealer]

And if the dog hadn't stopped to take a poop, it might have caught the rabbit?

[Quexos]

Okay okay, I'll answer the question asked in the thread and people will agree or disagree as seen before...

Originally Posted by Antoinekamel

And old thing is not a dead thing. And old things means it subsists for a long time and, therefore, is worth something: respect the elder and debate piracy.

Neither. IF ... then they should just be left alone for being part of the internet culture of sharing. Regardless of them doing it on or off the net.

Originally Posted by Giggleton

If these "pirates" were only trying to distribute these textbooks instead of sell them, should they still be penalized or rewarded??

[cromag]

No, the cost didn't make it wrong -- it was just wrong. And the content wouldn't make it right. It's theft, and theft is just wrong.

Originally Posted by Giggleton

...
The world is just one big slippery slope.

Not for minds that are capable of getting a grip.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Copyright infringement

Copyrights would be far more fun if they were decorated with fringe.

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Please stop beating a dead horse.

I'd rather he beat a dead horse than, say, my nephew.

Originally Posted by Giggleton

[T]hose . . . detailing how to grow . . . Nigeria more efficiently . . . [entertain a] slippery . . . lope. . . .

Anyway, I'll bite (which is why the tiny edible men fear me): How many giggles are there in a ton?

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by cromag

No, the cost didn't make it wrong -- it was just wrong. And the content wouldn't make it right. It's theft, and theft is just wrong.

So in order to read we must first compensate the creator?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

So in order to read we must first compensate the creator?

Took you long enough! Welcome, traveler, to reality. Be not frightened of the world outside your head.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Certain churches are founded on the idea that, in order to live forever, creators must first compensate the Creator with prayer, slavish devotion and gifts to self-appointed interlocutors. Is that premise founded on reality as well? A lot of rulers and war-mongers seemed to think so once.

(Edit: Wanted to link to an epub or mobi edition of Foucault's Madness and Civilization, but it seems not to exist, which is odd, because his History of Sexuality is widely available in those very formats.)

[morriss003]

Although I don't condone piracy, if I had children and lived in abject poverty no law by any government anywhere would stop me from trying to educate them, and no sense of morality would stop me either. I would hope that once my kids did not live as I did, they would follow the laws and live a moral life, but that would be for their future and their children's future, not mine.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

So in order to read we must first compensate the creator?

Why on earth would you not compensate someone who created something that you benefit from? Do you expect everything in life to be handed to you for free, with no effort on your part, and contribute nothing in return to society?

Apparently, yes, you do.

[frahse]

The First Law is "survival."

Many are so far up the food chain, they have forgotten that.

I myself obey the law. I even completely stop at Stop Signs and Turn right After Stop. I don't "slow and go" or "roll on through."

All that said, I would steal from anyone and destroy everything to keep my children or myself from starving.

Now does that statement apply to someone called "creator" whether it be the farmer who grew a melon, or a herder who raised a lamb, or a writer who wrote a book? Definitely.