Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Do you seriously believe that nobody illegally download books simply because they want to get something for free, rather than pay for it?
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I'm sure there are, just as there are people in every walk of life who try to get something for nothing rather than pay for it. It's common human behavior. The fact that those type of people are also on the Dark Net shouldn't come as any surprise.
Personally, I don't think that the Dark Net has any great effect on the sales of books. Those people who like to buy books are still buying books. Those people who never buy books are still not buying books. I think that more fuss is being made by those people who are morally outraged over the whole concept of someone else getting something for nothing, than by the actual effect on sales figures. As is clear in this thread, it has become an "Us vs. Them" argument, with a strong element of "If you're not with us, you're against us" applied.
It is a no-win argument. Those who use the Dark Net do so for reasons that are perfectly valid to them. Those who don't use it, ditto. The problem is occurring, IMO, because ebook file sharing is a completely different kettle of fish due to a cultural history of book sharing, libraries and used book sales. That's why those who use the arguments of car stealing and house breaking are having their words dismissed; those are square-peg/round-hole arguments.
I don't think that there is a clear right-wrong in this argument. Some will respond in exasperation, "but it is STEALING!" But the problem is, we can't even legally define
what it is at this point. Is it theft? Is it copyright infringement? Does the legal code even adequately address the current situation or is it out-dated? When is sharing books allowed and when isn't it? Who is authorized to make that decision - the individual or the government? Why is it somehow okay to share a book with a few people but not a few hundred (or a few thousand)? Do we actually own what we buy and have the freedom to do what we will with it? Are publisher-imposed restrictions on books actually legal? Are they morally right? Would any of those people who file share the book have actually bought it; is the "lost sale" argument even valid? And that's not even taking into account the artificial geographical restrictions on book sales. Not to mention that we each have our own moral and ethical code, and that just because, for example, mine might differ from yours and vice versa, that doesn't make either of us morally superior to the other within the context of our lives.