Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Thornton
No, it is copyright infringement.
For example, if someone used a picture of a donkey which Disney owns the copyright to as their avatar, that's copyright infringement - it doesn't make them a thief.
Does it?
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Look, if I use a donkey picture as my avatar, I *could* have created it in Photoshop - Lord knows I get enough practice at this stuff! So that does qualify as copyright infringement - maybe.
However, if I don't own a dead-tree copy of a novel and the novel is available for sale as an ebook and I choose instead to download it from the dark-net sites, or scan it in from a library book, it's much more similar to me going into a bookstore or supermarket and shoplifting a paperback version. Would you call that 'copyright infringement'? No, you'd call that theft. Misdemeanor theft to be sure, but still, theft.
Derek