Quote:
Originally Posted by rlauzon
No, it isn't and never will be. You may want to believe it is, the facts say otherwise.
An eBook is the essence of a physical book. It's the story the book contains in a non-physical form. It is an idea. You cannot own it. No author owns the stories he writes. Authors are granted, by the law, a limited monopoly on the stories they write. After that limit is reached, the story belongs to public - where the author got most of his ideas for the story in the first place.
Correct. Please explain how "finite amount of time" and "70 years past death" have anything to do with each other.
Then you agree that "intellectual property" doesn't exist.
How do they make a profit today? Nothing really changed except that making copies is now free.
Eric Flint and Cory Doctorow disagree with you. That illicit copying has made more people aware of you as an author.
And I'll state again, copyright today is disrespectful. To expect people to respect the disrespectful is not realistic.
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Is it wrong for me to expect you to pay for a book that I spent 4 months writing? Perhaps any one could do it, but I'm the one that did. Stealing a book, for any reason, is wrong. How would you like to come down to where you work, and ask you to a bunch for me free? I make money off a talent or hard work, just like baseball players, just like computer programmers, just like almost everyone. The bottom line, no matter what you want to argue legally, is intellectual work == time, in any business. Some of us are more efficient than others, but ethically, you are stealing my time, the same as if I came down to your job and did something inane to waste your time, and force you to make it up otherwise. It may be different if there was going to be some moral dilemma, like you need to eat the book, or you'll die. I have yet to see that.
Also, I think anyone who claims there is no such thing as intellectual property is an apologist in denial. No amount of semantic shenanigans or attempts to legally split hairs can change the fact that ideas have weight, regardless of their physical substance. The "attack music" from Jaws is used and example of one of the most successful examples of classical conditioning ever. A book, a movie, a song are all ideas made corporal by the collaborative efforts of dedicated people. Even though I think the majority of problems we have with any kind of digital distribution are the fault of greedy jerks, it would be a lie to claim that they don't do work. Someone has to write it down, if nothing else. That alone justifies the idea of intellectual property. That you have this viewpoint saddens and shocks me. I had the misfortune of not being born before you could easily steal my work, so that justifies it? If you're more that a french-fry maker, chances are someone is paying you for knowledge you have that they don't. Maybe you are a lackey, or maybe you actually have a skillset. If someone is paying for knowledge you possess, How can you say that ideas have no value? Are they really paying for a chair warmer? Do they only pay you to do things they know how to do, but have no time to do? Artists are even different, because they have to be adroit in their medium. You can be an antisocial computer tech or ad exec...no one will buy a song that articulates thing poorly, or a book that makes no sense and is full of errors. Would you pay an artist to sketch your face? You wouldn't get very far if all you were willing to pay is the cost of charcoal and paper. Intellectual property is very real, and saying there is no such thing is beyond ignorant. I hope you don't like my books, of which there will be at least 3, because with a stupid idea like that, I'm sure you'd steal them. I guess we can be assured you'll never try to write a book, or song, or movie, or paint a picture.
I'm not talking about copying a book you've paid for. You have the right to a backup and the same work on a different media. When it's hairy is when you distribute it to other people. A person that copies your copy of
The Princess Bride is acting unethically. They didn't pay for it and now they possess it. Books are one of the oldest value added commodities, and digital books are more so. Because the physical value is low the inherent one is? If I write a novel in the sand, and that novel is ground breaking 9no pun intended), is it only worth the sand it's written on?
Ethically, to argue that you shouldn't have a right to your own ideas is to argue that they are valueless to the individual. That won't change until ideas no longer change the way we behave and even think. Legally, you can argue whatever you want, semantically you can sharpen the axe and take your luck with the hair. The state of Copyright Laws may not be right, but two wrongs don't make a right. Reacting to that by stealing the works of art (and simply adding one more "wrong" to the chain, while expecting it to be right) is ethically wrong, whatever you claim your justification is.