Quote:
Originally Posted by gouzos
So what if it's legal? We're talking about morality and what should be legal not what is legal right now.
I still can't see the difference unless you live in one of the very few countries where libraries pay royalties when a book is lent out.
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The difference was already explained to you. With a physical book, only ONE person can hold a given copy at a time. With an ebook, most people don't delete the file off their hard drive when they "give" it to someone else; they just make a copy.
An item's worth is directly poportional to its scarcity. If I print only 10,000 copies of my book, yes I may be hurting my sales prospects long-term, but I'm controlling the distribution and ensuring each one has high value. If a library buys one and lends it out, it doesn't create new copies. It may stimulate demand (people like the book and now want to own it), or it may depress demand (people who otherwise would have bought it but now are satisfied with just reading it). But if the library could print new copies of that book on demand and let each person keep it FOR FREE, well maybe some people would still go out and buy the book, but the price per book would still fall because it would be a lot easier for people to get a copy of it than before.
The right of copyright is not just the right to sell at any price; it's the right to control the number and manner of sales as well.