Quote:
Originally Posted by BookCat
The guy in my example stole money: the income of the library owner, who could equate to an author or publishing house.
Why would the library owner bother establishing another library; why would the author who is not being paid royalties bother to write another book (except for love of writing)?
The thing which has been stolen is not the a physical item, like a book, but money and the means of earning it.
Seems to me that the law hasn't caught up with technology.
|
That's a bit like claiming that anyone who comes in a sets up a second store where only one had existed is stealing from the previous store. Your example is functionally no different that someone setting up a new ebook store and creating ebooks from books he purchased elsewhere. The loss for the first store owner is the same regardless of where the ebook store owner got the books. As the good lawyer said earlier, in your example, the ebook owner is guilty of copyright violation and contract violation, not theft.