Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Yes, print books can be resold . . . .
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Why concede that, Hitch?
If there's a pile of twelve books of the same title at a bookstore, and you take one (I hope by paying, but maybe not), that's likely to mean one less book pulped.
I need to make one qualification. Right now, because of a temporary
paper book shortage, this may not be true. But, normally,
the last book in the pile is liable to be pulped.
Stealing a physical book often helps the commercial book industry, taken as a whole, by saving it the cost of pulping. Plus, I'm sure that some people shoplift paper books, and subsequently give them five star Amazon reviews that help sales. I'm not saying this to justify shoplifting, but to point out that the same kind of excuses you sometimes hear for piracy also apply to stealing physical books.
I don't want people to go to jail, or face a life-altering fine, for the first offense, or probably even the second offense, of appropriating a book without paying. But I fail to see why there's some moral difference between shoplifting and piracy.