Quote:
Originally Posted by dsvick
This is a big difference from stealing though which is what is you are doing if you find a copy of book that is otherwise intended to be purchased and you download it without paying for it.
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This is where it starts getting really interesting.
Such as a book being in public domain in Canada, but not in the US.
Wrong? Right? Moral? Immoral?
Fair use laws more or less say that anything you legally own a copy of you can legally copy. Why shouldn't that apply to ebooks as well as other media?
So using that as a guide, is it wrong for me to go to the darknet to get ebook copies of all the pbooks I have in my collection?
There is no black and white here. And everyone who is so desperately
trying to keep it black and white are afraid of something.
The other thing that so many of you like to forget. Ultimately it is we the people who end up making the laws, directly or indirectly. What is perceived by the people as not being legal, yet not wrong, is often practiced openly.
Look at the states that have somewhat open medical Marijuana laws.
They don't see it as a crime, so often it is not enforced at all.
Eventually it will probably be legalized. After all its better to have it grown here, inspected, packaged and taxed than to have it smuggled across the border.
So to get back on subject.
Ben, my answer, all the above except #1. Because things change, what you feel for one book may not hold true for another. Some things are worth paying for. Some, if you can get them no other way, and you want them bad enough, are worth going to the dark nets for.
I should feel bad because some author didn't get his 60 - 90 cents.
Hey, times are tough all over. Should for example Dick Francis's son have the right to take dollars out of my pocket? After all he didn't do the work, he was just born into that situation. So why should I support him? His dad did the work, his son I'm sure already inherited his retirement home in the Cayman Islands. What more does he need?
There is no real question about the legality of it all. Like it or not that has been made pretty clear.
Where the question is, and hence all the debate, is where the morality of it lies. That is why its a loaded issue. That is why all the debate.
That answer will indeed be different for each person. And often that answer will change as a person situation changes.