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Andurian,
Yes I have generally argued from ethics, but the ethics in this particular case are closely tied to the law. I.e., the law defines a set of rules that authors, publishers and readers should ultimately abide by. The authors write and the publishers publish, hoping that readers will buy their work but without the guarantee that their books will ever be bought. But built into the legal construct, is the concept of fair use. Authors and publishers both know that not everyone who reads their work will directly pay for it, some will read it in libraries and others will borrow copies that friends have bought, and a small percentage of said books will even be read in the book store. Those are all well understood when the publishers agrees to sell the book store books. Since the standard is accepted by all parties involved, it is not unethical to take advantage of fair use to read a book.
What I consider unethical is the practice of obtaining illegally produced copies of an author's work, either for personal use or to make a profit on. By going beyond the reasonable bounds of fair use, one is not only breaking the law, but also breaking the implicit agreement that is made by society with authors when the authors publish a book (that all copies of the book that are read where legally obtained).
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Bill
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