[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by TGS

Interesting point - now we have to make a distinction between a "tome" and a "book" - where tome refers to the physical aspect of the object, whilst book refers to the ideational, artistic or informational aspect of the object. I'm guessing that the value of Superweasel mostly resides in its tome aspect - there aren't many physical, original copies and that scarcity is what gives it its value.

"Scarcity" is a relative term, here; dozens of copies are available for pennies (plus shipping) a Amazon & other used book sellers. It's out of print, with no plans of reprints, but not obscure. There's some value in the specific text, but overall it's fairly interchangeable with (1) the other books in the series and (2) any number of other young adult novels with modern-day young-teen-hero characters.

I'm guessing the Azoetia contains information that is valuable in itself because it tells you how to make gold out of baked beans or something, and so its value lies in it's book aspect.

Make gold, fight demons, conquer the astral planes, control deities for fun and profit, that kind of thing. Theoretically. (I have yet to meet an insanely wealthy or politically powerful owner of the Azoetia, so I rather doubt some of its implied claims.) It claims to contain mystical secrets of great power, and all that, so yes, the value is in the text.

Downloading a dodgy copy of Superweasel would not be downloading a copy of the tome, but downloading a dodgy copy of the Azoetia would be downloading a copy of the book - so that would be naughtier because downloading it gives you what you shouldn't have.

OTOH, the legal case for downloading the Azoetia may be stronger. Inasmuch as a main purpose of copyright is to allow the copyright owner to profit from it, and Azoetia is much, much less likely to be reprinted or released as a legit ebook, the claim can be made that downloads of it aren't causing any harm.

In the recent Sony v Tenenbaum ruling, judge Gertner said,

"…a defendant who used the new file-sharing networks in the technological interregnum before digital media could be purchased legally, but who later shifted to paid outlets, might also be able to rely on the defense."

And in The Wind Done Gone case, Marcus' concurring opinion said,

"The law grants copyright holders a powerful monopoly in their expressive works. It should not also afford them windfall damages for the publication of the sorts of works that they themselves would never publish, or worse, grant them a power of indirect censorship."

So we've got two judges who've said something like, if the copyright owner isn't going to touch a particular market, it might be available for others. And in the case of these two books, the Alvin Fernald stands a much better chance (imho) of being re-released in paper or being released as an ebook at some point.

Azoetia was published by a small independent press in a limited number of collector's copies. Author is deceased, and demand for the book is limited to relatively wealthy occultists--of which there are admittedly plenty, but that market pales in comparison to the market for "young adult books I remember fondly from my childhood and wish to inflict on my children."

So, a rough heuristic for determining naughtiness of downloading a particular item might be n= (br - tr) x ap where "n" is naughtiness, "br" is book ratio, or the degree to which a object accrues its value in virtue of its book aspect (on a scale yet to be specified), "tr" is tome ratio or the degree to which a object accrues its value in virtue of its tome aspect (on a scale yet to be specified) and "ap" is asking price for the item. There now - we can all work out just how naughty we have been, and more importantly, how naughty we would be if we were to nab that missing seventh volume in the series that we just can't get anywhere else.

DO NOT TRY TO CONFUSE ME WITH YOUR MATHS. I WILL CONTINUE TO CALCULATE EBOOK NAUGHTINESS BY HOW MANY TIMES KENNYC SAYS THE WORD "THEFT" IN A THREAD WHERE IT'S MENTIONED.