Quote:
Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore
Do you subscribe to a deontological ethical system, Harry?
Anyway, the situation you outline above is different because the consequences are different; in your case taxes remain unpaid and the public is deprived of a benefit which it is owed.
In my case, I do not owe the author anything for making an additional personal copy of a book I have legally obtained. Whether I myself make the copy or have a volunteer (say my wife or my brother or, in this case, a stranger) do it is irrelevant from an ethical view point. Why is the case different if this second party makes the copy from their own legally obtained book? Is there some mystical property present in my own personal book that is transmissible via my own labor to the copy, thereby conferring legitimacy?
I am not going to buy an ebook version of a work that I have already purchased in paper format. A decision to download a scan made by someone else as opposed to making one with my own scanner does not result in differing consequences for any of the parties involved. From a consequentialist (or utilitarian) conception of ethics, the action is ethically neutral.
Luqman
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I will happily buy an ebook version of a pbook I already own. I then donate the pbook, if it isn't in too horrible a shape to the library. I wanted to buy these books as ebooks, they just aren't available. I'm having the same issue with a couple of other favorite books -- they are only available on the darknet. I haven't succumbed in their cases yet, but it gets more tempting every day.
I note that Baen is slowly re-releasing a Heinlein. If The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is released by Baen, I'd buy it in a flash, just because I'd like to support them. That would be the only reason I purchased it at any expensive price now, however. Robert Heinlein died 22 years ago, his wife died 7 years ago and they had no children. By repurchasing a book that I have already bought 4 times in pbook (to replace copies that were falling apart) I don't see exactly who I'm supporting.
I agree that Auel is more a grey area, since she is still living. However, I did purchase each of her books as pbooks. If scanning those pbooks into a file myself is okay, I don't see how downloading them off the darknet is any different. It just saves me the time and effort. It is not similar to the whiskey analogy, since I would have bought the legit ebook if it was available.
-Marcy