Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy
When you borrow a pBook from the library, the author neither gets paid or asked for permission.
So if that's why someone is against "piracy", then they must be against libraries too?
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If you read my later clarification, you'll see I was discussing the way ebooks work. Although I also mentioned, I wasn't actually aware that paper books worked differently and libraries do not pay a royalty fee for each loan of a paper book. I had incorrectly assumed they operated the same way as they did with ebooks.
That said, it does not change my point. Libraries are still operating within the law. The law (as you/others have made me aware) allows them to loan paper books without agreement/fee, so they do. It does not however allow them to loan ebooks without a agreement/fee, so they either don't loan them, or they make the agreement. Pirates do not abide by that.
That is imo what harry was referring to with his comment about not paying is stealing. Perhaps he did literally mean "payment" but I very much doubt that, otherwise he'd be against people downloading free ebooks from Amazon.
Now if people wish to debate whether ebooks should be treated like paperbooks when it comes to libraries loaning them, that's another matter and likely an interesting one
For software, the law has apparently come down in favour of them been treated the same.