Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
People don't have a right to read everything that gets published. Rights holders are free to restrict who they allow to read their titles.
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No, they're not. They're free to restrict who they allow to *copy* their titles, and who they allow to publicly perform their titles, or translate them, or make other derivatives of them.
They're not free to restrict who reads them. That ebook reading is often tied to copying doesn't change that... I'm still free to loan my Sony to anyone I trust, and let them read books on it without compensating the author. The idea that "every reader should pay for each book" is not part of copyright law.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
The plain fact is that pirate sites don't pay for anything and don't help the authors and publishers. They are to the publishing industry as leeches and tapeworms are to a healthy human being.
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Or they are to the digital publishing industry as used bookstores and rummage sales are to the physical one... not directly financially beneficial, and sometimes detrimental because someone who buys a $1 book at a yard sale probably won't be buying the new version, but they promote an interest in books, and they introduce many readers to new authors they might not have been willing to take a full-price risk on.