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Originally Posted by WritePR
No, distributing something that isn't yours, or copying someone else's work is copyright infringement.
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Ever told a joke at a party that someone else had told you? Did you find out who created the original joke and ask them for permission to distribute their copyrighted material?
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Taking something that costs money and refusing to pay for it is STEALING.
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Except that copyright infringement isn't "taking" anything. It's COPYING. When it's done, there are now TWO copies where there formerly was only one.
It is not "stealing" for me to mix flour, water, eggs, and salt in exactly the same proportions as a bakery, and make my own bread. I'm using my resources to make another one, just like theirs. It might be criminal for me to sell my bread--it might even be illegal for me to give it away--but the name of that crime would not be "theft."
Copyright infringement is not "theft" because
the original isn't gone. That doesn't mean it's right, or acceptable, or not illegal--just that it
isn't theft. And if you don't understand the basic meanings of words, you aren't likely to convince people to pay you for your writing.
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Authors do deserve to get paid. We have bills to pay and need to eat just like you.
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No, authors *who have found customers* deserve to get paid. Writing a book doesn't give you a write to payment--at least, not in non-socialist countries. (I don't think there are any countries that practice that kind of socialism.) You only get paid if you:
1) Convince people it's worth reading,
2) Set a price they're willing to pay,
3) Arrange a venue in which they can pay you for your work.
Fail at any of those steps, and you don't get paid. Price your new romance novel at $12,000 and, "deserve" or not, you won't make sales.
You seem to be saying "if they haven't paid for it, they shouldn't read it." But books have never only been read by people who paid for them. (And authors should fear a future in which only customers are readers... none of us became avid readers by paying for every book we read.) The torrented copy is not much different from the beat-up paperback handed around teenagers at a school; sure, the author was paid at some point (that torrented copy was paid for by someone), but most of the readers haven't fed into the author's royalty stream.
There *are* some differences. The beat-up copy bouncing around the high school is likely read by a couple-dozen students, not a couple-thousand. (Well. The torrented copy, unless it was written by Rowling or King, is likely not *read* by thousands, either. But it might be downloaded by them.) But until we have a legal, legitimate way to say, "I've finished this; it was awesome; here, you read it next," the torrents and download sites are going to continue to exist.