Quote:Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
There would be only one set of circumstances in which I'd consider it ethically justifiable to pirate a book:
1. If no commercial eBook was available.
and:
2. I'd bought the paper book.
In those circumstances, I'd have no qualms about downloading a pirated eBook. However, if a commercial eBook did then become commercially available, I'd buy it.
So I'd have to answer "on occasions". Very rare occasions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by arnique
These are also the main reasons I pirate books. However, the frequency is not on "very rare occasions" because of the geographic restrictions that many ebook publishers are bound by. I live outside the US so I often come up against that irritating wall. Not only does it take three-six months for the deadtree books to come to my local bookshop, I cannot legally purchase a commercial ebook.
SO conditions when I pirate ebooks:
1. No commercial ebook and/or deadtree book available in my region.
2. New authors. I need more than the usual free "preview" to decide whether I like his or her writing style. If I like the writer, I will buy the book in hardcover (if available) to "offset" the download.
Unlike HarryT though, I will not purchase the epub when it becomes commercially available, I will buy the deadtree book. In some ways, a physical book is the best one to have.
I ALWAYS buy commercial epub and/or deadtree of writers I've read before, even if the individual book turn out to be bad! I am more likely to purchase epubs (even of new authors) if they are self-published. The price tends to be more acceptable $1.99-5.99 and I feel like I'm actually contributing to the writers themselves.
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I think there's another occasion for obtaining an ebook via 'unorthodox' means:
- if the paper version, nor the ebook version is available - irregardless of whether the author is still in copyright or not.