Quote:
Originally Posted by dsuden
If I live to be a thousand, I'll never understand the argument that piracy is somehow justified if someone disagrees about what's being charged for a product. We don't own a product until we have paid for it, whether it's a diamond ring, a shirt, a DVD, or a book. It doesn't belong to us and we don't have any right to it. Would we shoplift if we thought the price of an article of clothing was too high? Hopefully not.
Nor is it is not up to you or me to set the price of the products we wish to own. We either agree to buy something at a certain price, and then we own it, or we disagree about the price and don't buy it...and don't own it. That's real life. The alternative is, and should be, a fat fine or time in jail.
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I mostly agree with you but there is another side of the coin in the case of textbooks in that the purchaser has no alternatives.
If a piece of clothing is too expensive, you have the choice to by another piece of clothing that is less expensive and serves the same function (or buy the expensive clothing at an outlet store when it's out of season). If you are a student in a physics class that is taught with a specific text book, you can't buy another less expensive physics textbook and still do the class work. You can't even buy a used version of the book because some slight change forces you to purchase the most current version. There is no choice.
Now, if you could buy the used textbook and download the updated pages for a small fee, you might be less tempted to purchase a pirated version.
I'm glad I'm not in school.
