Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
This is stupid. There are a lot of differences. But depending on what moral argument you use to motivate lending books different aspects become important. You made the claim that people were "stupid" that brought up the library example. I wanted to see if you had any argument for this and therefore asked for clarifications. My conclusions now can only be that you do not have any arguments.
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Libraries are given permission to loan books (among other media) in their possession to the public. As such, they provide an important function in most communities. They do not function as a gateway for the distribution of materials obtained through, what amount to, illegal channels.
Individuals can purchase books, however, current copyright laws, where they exist, do not permit the copying and distribution of said books without the consent of the copyright holder. The uploading and distribution of copyrighted materials is, where laws apply, illegal. Folks who visit illegal P2P sites do so for one reason, to obtain, for free, illegally uploaded media.
In most societies, it is considered immoral to take what one does not own – which amounts to, for lack of a better word, stealing.
Again, you’ve yet to cite an example in which an author denied library access to his or her book or books. You mentioned that you remembered a case, but memory is faulty, and not an acceptable example of actual evidence to support your argument.