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[QUOTE=Alisa;806461]The moral difference to me is that I feel the authors and publishers are entitled to set terms for making their work available just as I set the terms for mine. Maybe it's because I make my living by producing unique content (software) that I feel a strong sympathy for the authors on this one. I would be pretty peeved if someone used my code without my permission so I'd feel hypocritical doing the same to an author.
I was not discussing legality, but rather morality. Someone who uses your code for personal use without ever selling the results of your code probably is not really hurting you, although it may well be illegal. I think that if the publishers could make it legal, they would greatly restrict library use of their books because undoubtedly they must lose a tremendous number of sales because so many of their books are easily available at libraries.
Personally I believe it is immoral to download commercially available ebooks but I don't see that this practice is any more damaging to authors and publishers than libraries reads - one who downloads an illegal ebook, just like the reader of a paper book from the library, might decide on the basis of their read to buy a paper copy - I probably would do that if I thought I had a real keeper that I would refer to often.
As far as copyrighted but out of print ebooks, I really don't understand how this is hurting the author in any way because there are no royalties from new or used book sales. In fact ebook popularity might lead a publisher to reissue the book and general new royalty sales; thus I've concluded that while illegal, this practice is not immoral in any way.
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