Thread: What is piracy?
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Old 05-28-2012, 02:29 PM   #30
SteveEisenberg
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton View Post
If I donate all of my future monies to those who cannot afford to eat, would it be ok for me to download whatever I wish to read?
Literally? No, because then you couldn't afford to eat, and would starve or become a ward of the state.

If you mean that you would donate everything above the barest minimum needed to survive, it still makes no sense because, by international standards, you have to be middle income or above to afford even a used computer, used eReader, and slow internet connection.

There may be a Chinese Buddhist monk who is living in great poverty and, at this moment, illegally downloading a book on the Fxxxx Gxxx*, to learn more about a tradition with both similarities and differences to his own. Bully for him, but that's highly atypical. You should be basing your arguments on the real world, where the vast majority of book pirates are in the top half of the worldwide income distribution. If poverty is to be the justification, then justify book shoplifting, which more plausibly is an activity of the poor.

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EDITED: *Changed to avoid page blockage, since there are PRC-resident members of Mobileread.

Last edited by SteveEisenberg; 05-28-2012 at 07:23 PM.
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