Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
I wasn't going to post this. I don't want to provide justification for pirates, but Steve's last post frankly pisses me off.
I realized something while reading this thread. I achieved insight into the ethics of piracy. Here it is:
It is no more right nor wrong to use the darknet than it is to use the public library.
Most everyone has agreed that there is nothing wrong in using a library.But it occurred to me that most have never really considered the ethics of it; they accept it because that was what they were taught at a young age.
Let's consider the library and the darknet. According to the accepted wisdom, the following is true:
Bob buys a book, and puts it in the library. A hundred people read it. This is good.
Bob buys a book, and puts it on the darknet. A hundred people read it. This is bad.
I would argue that the two situations are functionally the same. Let's dissect the ways they might not be.
Number (of copies) You have to prove the following if you want to argue that this aspect makes the darknet wrong: If I have 10 copies of an ebook on my hard disk but only paid for one, should I pay for the other nine?
Quantity (of users) It is accepted that potentially an infinite number of people could check the book out of the library. True, this would not happen because the paper copy would die first, even though the digital copy would not. But that is not a difference between the library and darknet. It is actually a difference between the analog and digital copies of the book. Since it is an aspect of the digital book, it is not relevant to the ethics of the darknet.
P.S. Steve, this is all your fault.  |
Just asked my collegaues where the nearest library is.
6 people, 1 answer.
I also asked how to download illegal MP3s. 5 answers.
Here, in libraries you can borrow CDs and DVDs, also.
And everything is completely free. Also the card.
Just a little statistics. I suppose in the US things are different...