Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I would make a clear distinction between actions which are beneficial to you (such as removing DRM), and actions which are harmful to the author (such as giving a copy of that DRM-stripped book to your friend).
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In what way would that be more harmful to the author than when I borrow a printed book from a library, lend it to a friend, buy a used copy, or inherit a book from my parents? In each of these cases, neither the author nor the publisher sees any money, but to my knowledge no one has ever considered any of this to be dishonest? Books have
always had more readers than they had buyers, and haven't we all been encouraged, in the pre-digital age, to
read books, without having been warned not ever to read any books we haven't personally bought? Only with ebooks the vendors had the glorious idea of selling non-transferable personal "reading rights" to individual readers, for about the same price as the printed book -- a very good idea from their POV, particularly since their costs per additional licence sold are approximately zero. But if sharing a book with a friend is harmful to the author and thus (as you've said in a different post) dishonest, then buying a printed book, where this can be freely done, would inherently be less honest than buying a DRM'd ebook?