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Originally Posted by Yapyap
Absolutely. Which is why really local authors are the only people who like that idea - users, many of whom will not pirate anything (especially users who are content creators themselves)
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I'm a content creator with regard to pictures (if I feel like taking pictures), and obviously, as a software engineer. The software I write (embedded software, customized website content management systems and similar platforms) is useless for home use, but it's VERY releant for many businesses. If they'd all pirate that software, the company I work for would go out of business; and therefore, I'd be out of work.
That's why I don't pirate stuff (because, pirating of pictures and software would affect me directly, so I can imagine how it feels), except if there is no other alternative. This happens in two cases:
e-books: If something is available and I am not allowed (or technically unable) to buy it because I happen to live in the wrong spot, then I *will* download it.
music: Sometimes I want to acquire some old 50-60 Jazz/Soul/Blues music, but sometimes the CD's are unobtainable in the Netherlands. If they are ridiculously expensive to import as well, while they cost mere peanuts in the country of origin, I'll be looking for a download.
Fortunately, both don't happen very often.
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And at the same time, having to pay a levy on blank media, for the express purpose of compensating content creators for pirated stuff, makes it rather more difficult for the users to accept why they shouldn't pirate or download without permission - after all, they're already taxed for it, they're already paying for it whether they do it or not, the state seems to have given a tacit permission (and even expectation) that it will be done, so ... you know, why not just do it?
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Quite right. However, just stating "It is illegal to download copyrighted work" is also not going to work. Often when searching for (background) information on a book or author, or a sample, it happens that Google provides me with a direct link that sometimes turns out to be the full book. Should I happen to click it, mistakenly thinking it's a sample, I'll be downloading an illegal version and might not even know it until I open it. Should I go to jail for that? I don't think so. This is the reason why downloading in the Netherlands is (still) allowed.