Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Thornton
Let's be clear - it's not legally theft.
It might strike you as being the same as theft, so you call it that - but I don't think that it is the same, because it doesn't take anything away in the way that theft does.
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You are correct. But to me that just says laws need updating to deal with issues of theft of digital content.
If a person gets a copy of an e-book that is for sale that they didn't pay for, it should be considered theft and treated as a minor misdemeanor theft just like stealing a $5-10 physical book IMO.
The DRM issues just need ironed out and fair use clearly defined. Someone should be able to loan e-books to people for a limited amount of time. People should be able to sell or give away their ebooks--as long as they don't keep a copy themselves. People should be able to put the ebooks they bought on different reading devices they own.
Just a matter of the technology and DRM improving to allow that. Have processes that move an e-book license from one person to another in a way that deletes the license from the giver/sellers machine etc.
But getting copies of stuff you didn't pay for that's for sale is wrong, and the laws need to change to define those as theft as it's taking sales away from publishers, authors and e-book stores.