Quote:
Originally Posted by danskmacabre
@ Harper Kingsley I've given away 100s of pbooks over the years wayyy before ebooks were around?
Was I somehow not compensating the author because of that?
I didn't hear anyone complaining when I gave pbooks away?
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A print book is a physical object that can receive a bent cover or torn pages. An ebook is solely digital and never shows any signs of wear and tear; thus, it is always like new.
So if cops busted into your house and confiscated all of your stuff within the the purview of a search warrant, if they wanted to give you a hard time, finding a hard drive full of ebooks and movies that you did not purchase could result in you getting a trip to jail as they use the time you're locked up to find other reasons to ruin your life. As long as I've never done anything else of an illegal nature, I would not worry about having tons of unpaid for ebooks on my computer. But if I wanted to keep "the Man" from finding another reason to put me away, I probably wouldn't keep the evidence of even minor wrong doing on my hard drive.
Illegal ebooks, movies, and video games could very well be the new tax evasion ploy to arrest criminals in the future. I would not like to be deported to Korea because of something incredibly stupid.
--Sorry, that was mean. I was upset by another commenter and all the talk of piracy, which makes me very sad faced
If you want to give away ebooks, you go ahead and do what you're going to do. An ebook can be copied a million times and still exist in its present form, never changing and never wearing out, unlike a print book or any other physical object. That being said, as a resource that never ceases to exist, it can be given away countless times without ever disappearing and no one ever needs to purchase a new copy, unlike "Aristoi," by Walter Jon Williams which I have purchased 3 times in my life in paperback format. Perhaps he used my hard earned money to buy something nice for his family.