Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
So, fine--don't call it theft. Call it damages--but the bottom line is the same. You don't pay for something you're using, you're enjoying, and NOT paying the people who created it. Whilst a rose by any other name smells as sweet, a theft by any other name still doesn't pay the creators, and it stinks just as badly.
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I agree with you for the most part. I'm not suggesting that it's okay to download or share pirated ebooks. It's not, for the reasons you've said and for other reasons as well. I just think that in an intelligent discussion we should call things by their right names or we really don't have a very intelligent discussion. There are a lot of issues in US society that are so emotional that we never get anywhere with them because people can't get their emotions out of the way. Gun control is one. Abortion is another. No matter which side of any of these issues we're on it's nearly impossible to find a calm and reasoned discussion about them. As a result nothing gets done.
What I'm asking for is the use of accurate terms instead of emotionally packed terms. This is important stuff.
Copyright used to be easy. If you scanned a paper book and printed off copies of it that was obviously illegal. Now with books that are so easily copied society has had to pass new laws to deal with copyright and that's a very touchy and difficult thing to get right. We don't have it nearly right yet. What we need is reasonable discussion about the ins and outs of it so we can, as a society, decide what compromises make sense. Until we can talk calmly about it we can't reach any conclusions.
We all agree, I think, that piracy is wrong. Let's talk about that in an intelligent and unemotional way.
And I didn't mention abortion or gun control to stir feelings. This isn't a discussion of those topics and I avoided giving any opinion on either. I mentioned them because they're such obvious examples of issues we can't seem to deal with.
If you'd like me to shut up on this issue I will. Simply call piracy theft again in a post following this one and I'll give up.
Barry