Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Accepting, for the sake of discussion, the validity of your argument, that then raises the question of where you draw the line.
If giving your friend a copy of an ebook is OK, is giving a copy to 10,000 of your closest friends on the Internet also OK? If it's not, what makes giving it to one person OK, but 10,000 people not OK? What is the maximum number that would be considered acceptable?
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It doesn't matter. The very fact that it would be
possible for someone to (hypothetically) responsibly loan ebooks (in a manner commensurate with physical book loaning) is reason enough to not universally apply the "piracy" label to those who (hypothetically) might choose to do so.
The "line" is up to the authorities to draw--and they need to do so in a way that doesn't assume all readers are out to bankrupt their favorite authors. It's not like they're actually prosecuting an ebook loan between friends now—with the zero tolerance rule in effect—so I suspect they'll be able to come up with something just as efficient as they have now that would legally permit a friend to "lend" a friend an ebook.
As far as I'm concerned, the line could easily be drawn at uploading or emailing (and no, that doesn't mean they can't go after the pirate who builds an elaborate flash-drive, snail-mail, illicit ebook network).