Ah no... the difference is not the number or quality of books read.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
Bob buys a book, and puts it in the library. A hundred people read it. This is good.
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There is no copyright violation here. A legal copy is purchased and no one has violated the copyright.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
Bob buys a book, and puts it on the darknet. A hundred people read it. This is bad.
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Ok, even if we accept your premis that the person that puts the ebook on the darknet buys it, there are still 100 copyright violations here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
I would argue that the two situations are functionally the same. Let's dissect the ways they might not be.
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Not the same. With the library example, only 1 person is able to read the book at a time. With the "dark net" 1 legal copy of the the book becomes 100 not-legal(legit whatever) copyies of the book. In the library, if 100 people want to read it the wait list becomes long... this generally indicates to the library they maybe should buy some more copies. They certainly wouldn't Xerox the book so they could lend more out at a time. Would everyone agree this is wrong?
Now I will say your premise is wrong. Generally the person putting the book on the darknet scanned a book he got from a library. How is this ok if Xeroxing the books is not? So, Bob has violated copywright by doing this. Then every person that downloads it is violating the copywright.
The very edge case of the same result of one book being bought and read by 100 people is true. I'll certainly give you that.
But, turns out lets say 100 libraries buy 1 copy of the book, and 1 copy is put on the darknet and 500,000 people read it. The author sold 101 copies and won't be writing another book because he is at Burger King trying to earn money to feed his family.
BOb