Roy,
It's not the same thing at all. First, the (hypothetical) money stolen from JKR at the restaurant is money she has earned - and received. The (potential) money she's not earning from her (potential) ebooks has *not* been earned because she *refuses* to make it available in that form. If she refuses to make it available in a form that all those ebook customers desire, then it is their right to make that form available to themselves. Note that no one is *selling* these ebook versions, they're just creating and distributing them. Since *she* has no desire to engage in this transaction and *they're* not engaging in a transaction, there's no theft of property. Intellectual property, you say? Hardly. Because the books are *still* available from the libraries, from friends and family willing to loan them out, and even from people who *buy* them just so they can make *free* ebook versions to give away.
She's said the money means nothing to her. (Yes, by refusing to consider sales of ebook versions of her stories, that is *exactly* the position she's taking.) Our (people who prefer ebooks) money isn't 'valuable' enough for her to go after. Then, when we find a way to get our ebook versions, she shouts 'FOUL'?!? If she didn't want people to read her stories, she shouldn't have written them.
BTW, have you ever studied the statistics? Those who download 'free' ebook versions of copyrighted novels quite often have dead tree versions sitting in their closets and on their bookshelves. All many of these people are doing is putting the stories into a storage format that is most convenient to them. Which they have the right to do if the publisher refuses to make such available to them.
Derek
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roy White
Nate. Put yourself in her shoes.... You're at a restaurant.. Someone steals money out of your pocket... You catch them at it.. They say, "Hey! I cant get money any other way!"
Or give you some other such baloney excuse to justufy their petty theft...
You'r argument still doesn't hold water. If she doesn't want her art in e book form, thats her right as the creator of that art. Will you justify theft in the physical world (Shoplifting for example) using the same arguments?
The library is a legal institution and therefore under a different set of circumstances entirely.
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