Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
I guess my point is any one who cares about respecting the rule of law, and who believes that rule of law is the proper way to run a society, rather than merely relying on who can get away with what, or who has the bigger stick to protect their interests with, should care.
And I'm not saying that I expect everyone to always behave in a way that observes any law no matter how trivial, burdensome or harmless, and, from the point of view of the copyright owner in these scenarios, it would be naively unreasonable to expect it.
It's just that I think it matters, as point of character or good citizenship, to a least consider the wrongness of it, and feel a little regret, rather than operating from a point of view that "there is nothing wrong with it."
That way, one gets in the habit of wanting to change and improve laws to make things better. To make them 'right.' Not in the habit of of deciding that it's 'right' to simply do what they want regardless of the law.
Just by analogy to make the point: Killing a person is bad. It's ALWAYS bad. But sometimes circumstances demand that someone be killed to prevent something EVEN WORSE. I ALWAYS want us to understand--and feel--that the killing was bad, even if it was absolutely necessarily and right. That way one is always coming from a position of wanting to reduce the need for the bad thing and to prevent it in the future, rather than looking for arguments to make the bad thing seem good.
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My initial answer was that unlike Sammy Hagar, I expect that you
can drive 55.
But really, I concede your point
and have just downloaded the Piranha novelization (written by John Sayles!).
Novelizations are typically seen as the bottom of the literary barrel. Except for a few rare instances (King Kong, Star Wars, Alien) once the movie disappears from theaters the book goes permanently out of print.
As a kid, I loved a cartoon series called Robotech. The series was popular enough that it spawned a series of novelizations. When I first got into e-books, I found fan made scans of the books and downloaded them.
Later, Del Rey actually released commercial e-book versions and I dutifully purchased them.
I'm not out to get something for nothing. If a commercial edition exists, I'll buy it. But for the type of books I'm talking about, if a fan scan is all that exists, I see no harm in grabbing it.
I'm not trying to make the argument that there is no wrongness or piracy to these things. As I mentioned earlier, justifications like 'copying isn't theft' are whitewashes that bother me. I understand it is wrong. But then I also understand that going over the speed limit is wrong.