Quote:
Originally Posted by Solo1959
So I think both of us agree that the laws apply primarily to distributors of copyrighted materials. And, morality aside, it is likely not a copyright violation to acquire copyrighted material from a source not approved by the copyright holder.
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It could still arguably be considered illegal, regardless of what it's called. It's not a copyright violation to steal a physical book from the bookstore, either, but both deny the rights-holder their legal due.
I'm not looking to debate whether or not "theft" or "stealing"
semantically applies to intellectual property--that's been talked to death. I'm just saying that it's probably a mistake to assume that "
it's not copyright violation" equals "
there's no potential legal repercussions for the 'acquire-er'." You'll get no argument from me that downloaders aren't very likely to be pursued by authorities, but I'm just not willing to go out on that limb and say that "questionable morality" is the only thing the downloader is technically "guilty" of. Not just yet, anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solo1959
So maybe I'm naive but I don't see a value for someone to just put up a site and give away free stuff.
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