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Originally Posted by jasonkchapman
You're assuming that the case is based on the file. What if the case isn't about possessing an illegal file? What if the case is about illegally obtaining the file? It's similar to the fact that stolen money isn't "illegal" money. The means of acquisition is what's in question.
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Stolen money is indeed "illegal" money, because someone has lost property, they have suffered financial loss. The means of acquisition is part of the crime, but they key factor is LOSS OF PROPERTY. In the case of an ebook, nobody has lost any property if someone that already owns that content in the form of a pbook, even if he acquires the files over the net.
We're talking licensing here- if I own a copy of Windows OS, it is not so much that I own the physical distro disk as it is that I have paid for the right to use the software. I have licensed it. It doesn't matter if I install it from the original distro cd, or from an .iso image downloaded from the net, or from a friend's cd. MS doesn't care, as long as you bought that license. So why should book publishers?
Ethics? I thionk the bigger factor here are market forces, and consumer demand. And these are working to force the price of information, whether ebooks or movies or music, down. It's a trend that won't stop.