Quote:
Originally Posted by pshrynk
Then, if I had already bought all seven or four books in paper, would you say that it was a signo of disrespect to dl darkweb copies of your seven or four books so that I could re-read them, still owning paper copies?
I understand the legal arguments, but just wondered what you, as a published author thought of this sort of usage.
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Okay... hypothetically:
If you had already purchased the books, and came across them on the Darknet prior to scanning and converting them yourself, for your Kindle... I would not consider it a matter of disrespect to do so. I would consider that as falling under the concept of "fair use," which is a legality-bender at any rate, and I would be okay with that.
The "disrespect" I speak of would be directed mostly to the person who scanned the books and posted them, without permission from the author/owner, on the Darknet. A person who downloaded those books for free, knowing that it was against the author/owner's wishes (in other words, knowing that the author/owner expected you to pay for at least one version of that book, or at most, every version you obtain), would also demonstrate disrespect, though not as much as by those who posted the book.
I suppose it could be argued here what level of respect an author/creator shows--or deserves--by expecting you to pay for each copy of the same e-book. But this is why there is "fair use," essentially giving people a legal excuse for copying their already-purchased media for their own use, and telling author/creators to "deal with it."
But the reason "fair use" works, is because historically it's always been significant work to duplicate someone else's product, making it hard to seriously infringe upon someone else's market and cause them financial harm. Now that we have electronic media, the web, and the Darknet, the logic behind "fair use" has been shattered.
This has left us in a quandry over what to do: Do we repair the logic by inventing copy difficulty (DRM, etc); do we lock down the web (surveillance, etc); do we re-create the media in such a way as to make it more secure to transact (Kindle, etc); do we do all three; or do we do nothing, in the face of a shattered system, and hope the Goodness of Mankind will somehow keep the media market functioning as it always has?
Hypothetically speaking... which is most likely to result in a functioning media market, where people get what they want and author/creators get paid fairly, and so continue to produce?