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Originally Posted by acidzebra
There is no real way to stop it save for shutting down the entire internet, every computer connected to it, and destroying all the digital media out there. The genie is out of the bottle, and calling people thieves and blathering on about the moral issue - that is dancing around the real issues.
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With the very greatest respect, acidzebra, moral issues lie at the heart of it.
Let me ask you this: why don't you steal food rather than buy it from a shop? I would hazzard a guess that it's not because you're afraid of the punishment if you're caught stealing, but because you think that it's fundamentally wrong to steal.
I know that downloading books illegally isn't stealing, but the fundamental question still remains: is it right or wrong? We have a person on this thread who's clearly said that he knows it's wrong, but he still does it. What can we do to change the attitude of people like Jake?
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People who try to take our common culture and try to lock it up behind steel gates - those are the real thieves.
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Again, with the greatest respect, writing books is just a job like any other job - it's not "our common culture". When I write a book, I have the right to sell it for profit just as I would if I were selling, say, sandwiches. Your choice, in a "law-abiding" world, is to decide whether or not you want to buy my sandwich/book, not say "I'm going to take it anyway without paying for it." or "I think you're charging to much for it, so I'm going to take it without paying for it".