Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertDDL
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?
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Because there is all the difference in the world between borrowing, buying, or giving away an existing copy of a book, and creating an
additional copy of a book and distributing that additionalal copy without the permission of the copyright holder.
The latter has been described as "piracy", and condemned by authors as such, for well over 400 years (you are, I'm sure, aware of Thomas Dekker's scathing attack on book piracy in his 1603 book "The Wonderfull Yeare"?). And that was in the days when people were extremely familiar with what acts of piracy really were.
It is not a new phenomenon, and not a new condemnation.