Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Again, because the content you downloaded is not the same item as the content you bought in the store (as proven by the fact that you can play one without touching the other). They are two distinct entities, and you are required to pay for both.
|
How do you figure that? As near as I can tell, they are identical. Using the iPod analogy again, I can play my CDs without having to touch them, too.
The thing I 'touch' when I read a physical book is paper, nothing more than a delivery mechanism for the content. If that weren't true, I would not have to buy more than one book, ever. I'd have a book and not need any more, because they'd all be the same. (and oh, what a happy hubby I would have...). When I buy a book, I am not buying the paper and ink, I am buying a license to read and enjoy the content.
I seems to me that authors would have a lot more objections to things like public libraries, which share the content by lending out the physical container. You don't get any money from the additional readership. At least I am buying my books, every one of them. If I want to download the content so I can discard the container (which takes up a lot of space if you have enough of them), I do not see how that is in any way unfair to the author.
Mind you, I say I would discard (recycle, actually) the books, not sell them. I will readily agree that if I sold the book (or even gave it away), it would be wrong for me to hang onto an electronic copy of the content.