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Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
The moral issue goes beyond not paying the author. Piracy is in the same ballpark with book shoplifting and plagiarism, the latter being, among other things, another form of copyright infringement.
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Plagiarism is a form of
fraud; it's only copyright infringement if (1) the original is copy-restricted (works in the public domain can be plagiarized) and (2) the use doesn't fall within fair-use standards.
Quoting a joke you heard at a party is not plagiarism unless you try to pass it off as your own; it may not be infringement either way.
I don't see how "piracy" (does giving my teenager a copy of ebooks I bought for myself count as piracy?) is in the same area as book shoplifting, for reasons that get hashed through here on a regular basis.
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The moral issue is using the book in a way not authorized by the author (or, in the case of many books, the book team including author, editor, agent, translator, designer, and support staff).
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So, the wrongness of shoplifting a book is that it's an unauthorized use, not that it takes the possibility of income away from the owner? I must admit, I hadn't heard that interpretation of theft before.
Does the author have the moral right to declare "I forbid Muslims to read this book?" Or is your idea of an author's moral rights specifically (and conveniently) limited to exactly those rights currently granted by law? (In which case, are people more or less moral in the US vs the UK? Or is morality defined by local laws?)
Parodies are legal fair use in the US. They are not specifically legal under UK moral rights. Are parodies moral?