[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

This is a bad comparison. In the case of both the library and the used book sale, the author has already been paid once, and the number of additional people who can read the used/library book is quite limited as compared to e-books available for download. And of course you only keep library books for a limited period of time. I should also note - with respect to libraries - that my library purchases many more books that I do not read than books that I do read. I.e., for every author whose book I borrow from the library, there are many more authors whose books I have paid for through my taxes, but whose books I will never read.

See above. The library bought the author's book. If it's likely to be popular, the library will have bought 100's of copies, in hardback, as my library did for Tom Clancy and Diane Setterfield.

The Darknet is like a lending library *except that the books are stolen.*

Please, not the "my taxes" argument. The percentage of your taxes - or my taxes for that matter - that actually buys any books is probably in fractions of cents. You are not actually paying full price for any of those books, no where near. In fact, you probably lose more change from your pocket in a year than you actually contribute to the cost of book purchases.

Rare is the library that buys "100's of copies of a book", and if your library is, then your allegation in your first paragraph that the number of people who can read it is limited is not quite true (100 copies x 52 weeks = at least 5200 readers). My library system does not buy 100's of copies of any book. LOL, they bought 15 of the last Harry Potter for four library locations.

No, the books on the Dark Net are not "stolen". They were put up by people who purchased copies of the books, just like libraries purchased their copies. The people who put them up there put them up with the express idea of sharing their copies of books with others. How is that different, except in scale, of you loaning a book you bought to a friend to read?

The "you can only keep a library book for a limited amount of time" argument is meaningless. What do you think happens with those ebooks that people download from the Dark Net? People read them, then either they delete the book immediately or they let it languish on their hard drives. They are not selling the books - there is no "used ebook" market, they are not doing anything nefarious with them. You can sell the book you previously loaned to a friend, and make money on it - money which does not go to the author. That's not an option with an ebook.

Yeah, it's been asserted that people do this for convenience. I'm sure there are a couple of people who do so. But pretending that the fact you can get a book for free on the darknet, vs. paying $9.99 or more retail, is intellectually dishonest.

And readers who steal from authors are scum.

Much more than "a couple". Many people use the Dark Net to obtain ebook copies of books they already own because they don't have either the technical ability or the equipment to convert the books on their own and/or the book is not available in ebook format. It's not so black-or-white an issue as you'd like to portray it.

We are going to have to agree to differ on this, because I don't see sharing books on the internet as "stealing", and it is not an ethical failing on my part as I'm sure some of you would like to depict it. What you seem to be failing to realize is that the people who even bother to put books up on the Dark Net, and the people who download them, are people who love books and love to read - a totally different kettle of fish from most other types of downloaders. These are people who are still buying paper books in addition to downloading ebooks. They are still supporting their local libraries. They are still supporting the authors.

It doesn't have to be an either/or or us vs. them proposition. Both methods of obtaining reading material - because that's what it ultimately is - can coexist peacefully. The key is to make both choices both attractive and useful. There will always be a need for public libraries, there are always going to be people who want to own physical books. What the Dark Net does really well is making available out-of-print books - books that you usually can't find in your local library or in bookstores. I don't know about your library system, but mine is constantly selling off its older books to make room for new ones. There are authors that I used to enjoy reading and re-reading whose books are no longer available in my library. The Dark Net is also, as I mentioned, capable of reaching a global audience. Why do you think there has been a rise in interest in America in Scandinavian mystery/suspense authors? It's not because they've been so well-marketed here.

I'm sure she didn't have access to the l33t book fencing clubs, but I think her experience is valuable because it suggests what the piracy experience will be like for more typical readers (although as a MR participant, she is already somewhat non-typical).

I was in no way knocking her. I was just pointing out that it wasn't an accurate representation of availability and that a newbie's definition of "top site" may not actually be the same as the top sites.