Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
Where the ethics get decidedly more dicey is in the following situation. Someone downloads the books they already have, and then sell or give away the physical copies of the books they downloaded. It seems to me that this dramatically increases the chance of the rights holder being deprived of an original sale. Obviously the person who downloaded the books downloaded them because they wanted continued access to them; if they couldn't download them, they probably would not have given them away. On the flip side, now that the books have been given away (or sold), there are used copies available that will end up in the hands of someone who may well have paid money for a new copy had this used copy not been available.
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Bill
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This is where we start getting into the what ifs. An equally persuasive argument could be made that providing a used copy of a book may peak a reader's interest in an author that they wouldn't ordinarily read and generate additional sales from different titles in that author's body of work.
My reasons were much simpler. I wanted to clear up the space the books were occupying and even though I have the capability to produce my own ebook from hard copy, it results in destroying the book. I'm not comfortable with that. I think it is a waste. I replaced my purchased copies (some bought multiple times in multiple formats) with ebooks and was able to pass on my favorites to someone else. I hope they get as much enjoyment from them as I did.
I didn't profit monetarily from the exercise but the publishers and authors may be out a few bucks from the 80 or so titles I downloaded. If they choose to pursue legal action, I'll pay the penalty.
Do I think I was wrong in this course of action? No.
Do some anonymous entities on this message board think I'm a thief? Probably.
Do I care? Not one bit.