Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Thornton
Just to be clear, I wouldn't go to the darknets for a book that was on sale as an ebook for which I didn't own a dead tree copy ...
... but this is still not theft. It's making an unauthorised copy. In my view, it's wrong in this case, because the book has been made available and the author has not yet been paid. But it still isn't theft - that's simply the wrong word for what is going on.
|
Authors write novels for various reasons, but they *submit* to publishers (dead-tree or electronic) specifically to receive money. The publishers print the books or create e-books in order to *sell* the novels to readers. This is a commercial transaction. Taking the e-book without paying for it after it is made available on a retail site for the specific purpose of reading it is NOT just making an unauthorized copy, it's theft.
Making an unauthorized copy is photocopying or scanning it to keeping it around after the original is returned - say after borrowing the copy from a friend or a library.
There *is* a difference.
Derek