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Originally Posted by Jaime_Astorga View Post
[SNIP] I am glad this is the case; I support piracy in general, but I specially support piracy against the price gouging college textbook companies who take advantage of the inelastic demand for their products by overcharging and releasing new editions every few years.
Quote: "I support piracy in general," i.e. authors should not be paid according to this argument.
[SNIP] Ergo, "stealing" a book by downloading it somewhere else than from a "store" means "robbing" you of 50c. It's pretty hard to call that activity "criminal". (And no, the fact that others do it too doesn't make my act more criminal).
So I suppose if I grabbed your wallet and took 50c out of it, it would NOT be criminal?
I hope--and I would think that most reasonable people would agree--that authors who strive to be reasonable and fair with their customers should be supported (and paid).
You have a choice: You can support the authors and publishers who are fair with you. Don't buy from those who charge exorbitant prices and otherwise take advantage of customers.
Just as you should support the indie musicians you enjoy so they can keep on making music. Buy their CDs/mps, go to concerts, buy T-shirts. That's all they want...to make a living so they can keep on making music.
But just copying without permission deprives the creator of valuable income they really need to pay bills. It means they will have less ability to spend time creating new works for you to enjoy because they have to go back to flipping burgers to pay their light bill. Is that really a desirable goal?
But I agree, you're spot on about the thievery of textbook publishers. The push for "open source textbooks" will hopefully curtail that.
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