Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Downloading a copy of something where no version is likely to be offered for sale--like orphaned books with no legit e-version, or abandonware games--is hard to insist is "wrong," because it's not hurting anyone to spread the copies around, and the idea that we should abandon large swaths of our cultural history to reinforce Disney's claim on their products is a bit ridiculous.
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In arguments of copyright infringement, it's not a matter of being "hurt," it's a matter of taking an action that could potentially deny a copyright owner a potential profit from their product. It's impossible to unilaterally decide who is "hurt" by downloading a copy of something that is not otherwise available. But it's easy to state that, if a product/service was someone's property by law, someone else should not profit from it.
I suspect the reason "fair use" is applied to law is that it allows for those who violate copyright to be exempt from automatic prosecution, as long as they don't try to make a profit on said product; but the moment you do try to make a profit, your status is automatically shifted to "criminal"... IOW, it's an interim step before becoming a criminal offense.