Quote:
Originally Posted by cmdahler
It's truly pitiful to see how people who grew up with the internet paradigm of file sharing have become so amoral about theft. This post from MrBlueSky is a perfect example of the attitude so many younger, internet-oriented people take: if it's not a tangible object, then it must not really be stealing. When there is no inner sense of right and wrong taught by parents who actually give a crap about their kids' moral development, the attitude of MrBlueSky is basically what you get as a result: "if I can't get caught, it must not be wrong." Or the old standby: "Everyone else is doing it, so it must be ok."
If MrBlueSky had spent a couple of years or more writing his own book only to see it linked around on various illegal torrent or Usenet groups, I'll bet he'd have a bit of a different attitude...
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Those "amoral kids" are almost as bad as the hyperbolic folks who want to make a civil offense into a criminal act. I am not going to speak for Mr. Blue Sky, but if we want to have a rational discussion we need to not blow so much smoke right out of the gate. A number of people on these forums are trying to make some reasonable points about the the repercussions of different types of unauthorized copying, and shrill cries of "Thieves! Thieves!" is not particularly useful.
This is a complex subject for a reason; there are a number of issues to be balanced when deciding how to deal with copying, on both the legal and ethical level. It would be helpful if posters (on *both* sides) were willing to bring a bit more to the table and discuss this in a reasonable way.