Quote:
Originally Posted by amgoforth
Yes you are right about those things. For myself I have always felt OK about downloading if I already owned a physical copy of the book. Trouble is I used to have thousands of books, so very few I couldn't download. However very few of those books were bought new. I need peace of mind on the subject.
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There are "very few" books you don't own? You are the British Library, and
I claim my five pounds.
Anyway, it seems to me that you can only find peace of mind on the subject by asking yourself what you care about. Is what is right, for you, driven by what the law says, by whether the author has been paid, by whether anyone is harmed - or what?
A narrow majority, if this poll is to be believed, agree with you (and me, as it happens), that if you own a physical copy of the book, you have no moral obligation to pay for the content in a different format. Often we do, of course, because it's easier to do so.
A larger majority seem to believe (as I do) that if an ebook is made available, and you don't yet own a copy in any format, you should not obtain it illegally.
The murkiest area is in the middle, where you can't get a legal copy - what then? I'd suggest that the way to think clearly about this
for you (you'll never get a straight answer on a forum), is to ask yourself what makes an action right or wrong, and take it from there.