Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
There seems to be a certain contradiction here.
1. It's OK to download a copy of a book from the internet if you have a paper copy.
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Another contradiction that I haven't seen here yet. Let me preface this by saying that I am just throwing this out here because its basically the same thing thats been mentioned here already only in reverse. I myself believe what I am about to say is pretty ridiculous but I thought it needed to be brought up and might change the way that some people think about their
entitlement to a book in electronic form because they own a paper copy.
So lets say I go onto Sony Connect and buy an ebook and then I decide that I want a paper copy of that book. Wouldn't it be ethically alright for me to go down to the local bookstore and pick up the same title in paper format and walk right out the front door without paying for it?
Somehow I don't think this would fly.
Now I know that a lot of people are going to say this is not the same because the paper book is a physical thing and there is a cost involved for the materials used to make the book. With this being said think of it this way.
Now days when we go to the store and
buy software we aren't actually buying it. We are licensing the use of the software under the terms and conditions of the end user license agreement. With this in mind it leads me to believe that I am not actually paying for the discs, documentation, and packaging. I am merely paying a fee to use the software that is on the discs.
If books and music were thought of in this same way we would just be licensing the use of or the ability to read/listen to the book or music that was on/in the physical medium. And if this were the case using the logic of "If I own the paper copy then I can legally/ethically download an electronic copy" then my idea above wouldn't seem so far fetched.
Now for a solution to this problem. When I buy a book from Cisco Press it almost always includes a CD with the book in PDF format. It would be really nice if when we bought a book, be it paper back or hard cover, that they included a link for us to legally download an electronic copy? I would, as someone else mentioned earlier, even be willing to pay an extra amount (maybe a dollar or two) to offset the cost of the conversion, bandwidth, server hardware, etc. So that I didn't have to buy two copies of the book at cover price.
I think there are a lot of creative things that these companies could do to create a better user experience for consumers. These are the things that they need to start doing to give people a reason to buy their products legally rather than fighting against consumers with the attitude that if given the opportunity we will do our best to steal from them.