Quote:
Originally Posted by Belfaborac
Of course downloaders take something, they just don't take that something away.
Basically it's an action which current laws are not equipped to handle. However, just because the action does not fit the old fashioned definition of stealing does not mean it's not dishonest.
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What they're stealing is an experience. If you go to a bar with a cover charge and sneak past the bouncer, you might not steal the one drink included with the price of admission -- you might not drink at all -- but what you're taking is an experience that cost time and money to create and was offered at a price.
Is the person who sneaks into a club hurting anyone literally? If s/he's the only one, then possibly not. But by not honoring the agreement to pay for the experience, they invalidate the agreement itself. By deciding they won't pay, they create a precedent -- why should anyone pay? -- and, if a crucial number of people concur, then the bar they enjoyed goes out of business.
The people who are hurt: The owners, the workers, the performers and, eventually, the legitimate customers who liked going there regularly.
If people don't think virtual books carry the same financial weight as real books, then fine. They can use virtual money to pay and see whether the dip in their bank accounts matters to them. If it does, then that same dip probably matters to the author.
If said author is wealthy or has been dead for several decades, then it perhaps it doesn't matter as much. But most of the professional writers I've ever met were alive and either poor or as temporarily rich as their last advance allowed.