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Originally Posted by HarryT
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.
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You ignored what I said about illicit distribution, and you spun my comment into a wholesale defense of pirating, which is not what I intended. I said:
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I think the focus should be on stopping distribution to file-sharing sites--I think that's the problem, not my stripping DRM and making a backup copy and maybe providing a copy to a friend in the same way I might loan out a physical book.
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Large-scale sharing is at least potentially harmful to the interests of the creator of the material. It is not the same as limited sharing with a friend. The two acts should not be painted with the same brush.
However, I think your transportation analogy is closer to the mark than any previous analogies. I would say limited sharing is more like carpooling, which certainly deprives the transportation company of income it would otherwise get.