Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
But taking something--depriving the rightful owner of something tangible--is by definition harmful to the victim. Simply copying something that is intended to be disseminated and is being disseminated (as opposed to copying some private/personal/secret document), though--if there is no quantifiable harm to the originator of the material, and if the person who copied the material is not attempting to make money selling copies, what exactly makes it wrong?
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What makes it wrong is that it's not a free gift - it's a product that's being commercially sold. What gives you the right to take it without paying for it? The product only exists because there are honest people out there who are willing to pay for it; you're "freeloading" on the backs of those honest purchasers.
It's exactly like saying "what's the harm in riding on a train without buying a ticket? The train is making the journey anyway, and I'm not depriving anyone of anything." If everyone took the same approach, the train would not be operating. If everyone pirated books, there won't be any new books.