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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Where do you draw the line between "casual sharing" and "piracy?" Is it based on number of copies? On whether the recipients are personally known to the giver? (In which case, what do you count as "personally known"--do online friends count?) Is it based on whether the copies are findable by easy public search?
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I'm not sure what the person you were responding to thinks of the issue, but for my own part, I was using "casual" to mean someone who wanted to share a file (with whomever) but didn't really want to invest time or energy into it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
And why do you think it's *helpful* to publishers to discourage the option of the kind of sharing that's helped push book sales for the last hundred years?
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The kind of sharing that's helped push book sales for the last hundred years is someone lending a book to a friend (or even serially, several friends). There's a long tradition of that. But here's the thing: That idea breaks down when you a) don't have to return the book, and b) have an unlimited source for books. In the old days, if I had a friend who had a book, I could borrow that book from him, and if I wanted to get another book by the same author, I'd have to either hope that that person had the book, or go out and buy it myself. In the digital age, I'm not reliant on personally knowing someone with a copy of the book, and I don't have to worry about giving the book back. I think those are major differences.