Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
...Why is it not reasonable from an ethical point of view? What is the ethical argument you are using here?...
...But that is a silly answer and shows that your argument is broken. If your ethical system do not allow for me to throw away a CD that I have made a digital copy of then it is broken.
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Your answer is broken because you are saying HarryT's "ethical system" does not allow you to throw away a CD you have made a copy of when, in fact, that is exactly what he is espousing. You continue to grasp at straws after HarryT has nailed your arguments to the wall.
When you buy a book or a CD, if copyrighted, you have the right to personally use that book or CD for as long as you wish. You may choose to read or listen to the book or CD as many times as you wish while you own it. Some countries allow you to legally make a copy of the copyrighted book or CD to use for your own personal use as long as you still own the original book or CD. Examples of this are making a backup copy to ensure you do not lose the content if the original becomes damaged to the point of being unusable and making a copy to use on a device the original is incompatable with, such as copying a book for use on an electronic device or ripping a CD to use on a music player. The spirit and letter of the laws governing this is you are the only person who possesses and has access to those copies.
In countries where copying copyrighted work for any reason is illegal, there are two ethical considerations. It is ethical for you to make multiple copies for your own use but breaking the law is unethical. For purposes of this discussion, I'll ignore the second ethic. Ethically speaking, legality aside, there is nothing wrong with having multiple copies of a book or CD as long as you are the only one who has the ability to use any of those copies at any one time. It is ethical to loan a copy to someone, such as loaning the original book or CD to someone as long as you do not access any of the copies while the book or CD are loaned out. If you decide you do not want to keep the original book or CD, your only ethical options are to destroy the originals or give away or sell the originals and either destroy the copies or turn them over to the recipient of the original book or CD. If someone else has ownership of the original book or CD, you no longer may ethically have the copy/copies of the book or CD. If you don't like it, either build a bridge and get over it or get a backbone, quit rationalizing, and admit you care only for yourself and not the rights of others.