Quote:
Originally Posted by sirbruce
No one is denying that often filesharing is breaking the law... or at least, the law as currently understood by most people.
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Also, the laws as applicable/valid in different countries.
US law is far more restrictive than (continental) EU law, or Canadian law as I understand it, while most of the judgmental types posting in this thread seem to be under the assumption that we are only talking about the most restrictive rule set.
The fact that there are also questions about what exactly constitutes a "breach" of those laws is a second issue, to which things like "fair use" and the distinction between downloading for commercial or non-commercial uses also apply, is a second issue, that has more to do with practical wisdom and personal judgment than current legislation. (Unless we have a supreme court justice on MR, but I somehow doubt that.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by sirbruce
And ultimately, whether or not it's legal is not a determinant as to whether or not it's *right*. We're all here discussing what we each personally feel is right and what reasons we have for thinking so; saying snootily "but that's illegal!" isn't adding anything useful to the discussion.
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A point i've made a few times now in this thread; sadly, the fairly unsubtle distinction between "personal morality" and "legality" or "Morality" seems to be one that a fair number of people posting here would prefer to either deny or ignore.
Anyway, this thread originally wasn't about the question "what is right" but about the question "how common is it", and while a number of comments have touched on that issue, I suspect that commonality mostly depends on where the people you're asking this live. If they live in, say, Iran, with a fairly restricted library system, I suspect they will be more inclined to download a book than when they live in Aspen, Colorado (even though there probably isn't a good library there either).
Similarly for people living in South America.. While amazon book prices are fairly low these days for me as a European, I suspect they're still a tad high for most students living there..
That said, I can't say the poll was very elaborate or comprehensive, and I suspect that there are relatively few MR members that live in those countries, so I doubt we'll be able to answer the question this thread posed to us.