[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by cmdahler

I suppose, in the selfishness that is increasingly the hallmark of thought in this day and age, you never stopped to consider in the midst of your rationalization that the author might perhaps care about the lost royalties from this "it doesn't hurt anyone" scheme.

1) I didn't say it "doesn't hurt anyone;" I said that an unauthorized copy doesn't remove an authorized one from anyone's possession. I didn't say "torrenting is okay;" I said it's not theft.

2) Authors don't get royalties for most of what I read in print, which tends heavily towards second-hand books. Are you claiming I'm immoral for having those?

You are focusing on the reading public, as though they are the ones who even matter, as though, when an author spends months or years creating a work, that the public has some kind of God-given right to read it. That's complete and utter horse manure.

Agreed.

However, the author has no Gods-given right to be paid for my reading, either. There are several legal ways to read that don't involve the possibility of royalties.

If I write a book and you want to read it, you can pay me what I want for it or you can do without.

Or I can borrow it from someone else. Or buy it at a yard sale. Or find it in a box of free books near my mailbox (my apartment complex often has freebies near the mailboxes). I don't have to pay *you* to read your book, unless I'm strongly inclined to read it in the first few weeks after it's published.

you had no intention of paying me for the privilege of reading my work and instead would just go illegally copy it from someone else.

How about if I legally borrow it from someone else? You're still out a royalty payment for my reading. Am I still stealing?