Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I'm afraid you've entirely lost me, Tommy. Someone who uploads commercial books to usenet newsgroups is a criminal. That is a true statement, so yes, it is a "blanket statement" because it's true. I don't give a damn whether the law chooses to call it "theft" or "copyright infringement". To my mind, it's all theft - taking someone else's property without their permission.
|
Holy Crap!
Harry said "damn"! But I agree with what you are saying. But I do want to add something even scarier. As a father to a 17 year-old, I don't think it's "kids" who are stealing books.
Music yes, books no. Trust me, if the big concern was kids and teens stealing books, then I would feel a lot better about our future. At least they would be reading books! No, I think it's 25-35 yr olds who are stealing books. I mean seriously, how many kids do you think are sitting at their computers, cruising the darknet looking for the latest suspense thriller?!
Maybe Harry Potter here and there, but most of the thieves right now are in our midst. They are nerdy guys, above average pay, e-book reading men. Obviously I am generalizing, since there will be exceptions, but my suspicion is that the people who are stealing books right now are the people who can more than afford to pay for them. They are us. Sad.
I speak as a former darknet troller myself. I admit it, I used to do it--a lot. I didn't even think about if it was wrong or right. It was there, it was easy. But then I really started to enjoy the written word, really took notice of what goes into it. Wanting to write stuff myself made me realize, that this is someone's heart and soul and I was stealing. Funny, I never stole music, or movies or anything else, but I viewed text as something different. I didn't view it as work, there was no pretty cover, no weight. But it was an idea. I was stealing someone's ideas.
So I stopped, I deleted everything. Guilt is a wonderful thing. And it spurred me to talk about copyrights and stuff with my son. He never downloaded stolen music or anything (thank goodness), but I made sure he knew WHY it was wrong and not just that it was wrong.
But plenty of his friends still download stolen music. Books?! Ha! They read a lot, but it ain't books darlin. It's blogs or gaming mags or text messages, but not books.
Again, I am generalizing, I am sure there are some teens out there uploading and downloading stolen texts. But I don't think they are the majority by any means.
But back to the point that that's the generation that will be growing up and they may not have the moral compass to know it's wrong is a valid point. I have no solutions, only observations. I do know that some people on the fence (morally speaking) may jump to the darkside because say, Harry Potter, isn't avaliable as a legal download and they don't want to wait.
I was surprised to find out that there is no Kindle edition of Lord of the Rings!! WTH!? So I do think that a lot of illegal downloading could be stopped if publishers got a clue and started giving more choices. Just like what Apple did.
There will be some who steal no matter what. No matter how cheap the book is, they will get the free illegal download. Sad fact but true.
Ok, now that I have rambled on, I realize that I have no point. But I have to agree with Harry on this issue. Just because you don't
feel that it should be legal to download/upload darknet materials, doesn't mean you can break the rules and say that you are doing the right thing.
Sure you can protest all you want. Steal all you want. But that won't make it legal, and that won't make the majority of publishers agree with you. Stealing my car may seem ok to you because you think you
deserve my car. Well I don't think you deserve it, and the law is on my side.