Do you pirate books and why?

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

My reply was only in response to "there is no real difference...", which there patently is.

Pragmatically, yes there is a difference. In terms of the law there isn't a difference. At least in terms of what constitutes copyright infringement. (Though I seem to recall that there are differences in what constitutes civil and criminal cases.)

[Belfaborac]

The pragmatic difference was what I referred to. Current copyright law is really not worth thinking about until it gets reworked and becomes relevant to this millennium.

[Format C:]

Originally Posted by Jaden

....

Others might not want to admit in public that they pirate books...

I've never ever boarded a ship with a patch on my eye, a parrot on my shoulder and a knife in my mouth to get her cargo of ebooks. I swear.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by applesauce

...There are those of us out there that reading must be in ebook formate in order to read it due to disabilities....

That's a point I wish more authors and publishers would bear in mind. I know of one woman whose eyesite is so impaired that she reads exclusively (as far as I know) on her iPad because of that device's pinch and zoom capabilities.

To those authors and publishes who don't care for ebooks, I say there's nothing wrong with that, but please have some consideration for those folks for whom reading a paper book is not an option.

[MikeOxlittle]

To the people who voted no, is that due to moral/legal reasons or technical?

Meaning, you do not pirate books because you don't know how or where to find them.

If the reason is technical, and someone were to tempt you by saying they would show you step by step how to get 5,000 retail quality ebooks in less than 5 minutes (if you have a decent internet connection) would you still not download it due to your beliefs or would the temptation be too strong to pass up?

Just a hypothetical question ....

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by MikeOxlittle

If the reason is technical, and someone were to tempt you by saying they would show you step by step how to get 5,000 retail quality ebooks in less than 5 minutes (if you have a decent internet connection) would you still not download it due to your beliefs or would the temptation be too strong to pass up?

For a lot of people, the temptation isn't too hard to pass by because of the risks. If they knew they could get 5000 retail-quality recently-on-the-charts ebooks for free, they might go for it (at least, just once, for that one book that they can't find in stores and can't get the legit copy because of geo restrictions)... but not if there's a good chance one of those could be a virus instead.

Odds of bootleg ebooks being/having viruses are very very low. But "low" is not the same as "I can sue the hell out of Amazon if this book scrambles my computer," and a lot of people don't want to take risks that they have no way of measuring.

[MikeOxlittle]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

For a lot of people, the temptation isn't too hard to pass by because of the risks. If they knew they could get 5000 retail-quality recently-on-the-charts ebooks for free, they might go for it (at least, just once, for that one book that they can't find in stores and can't get the legit copy because of geo restrictions)... but not if there's a good chance one of those could be a virus instead.

Odds of bootleg ebooks being/having viruses are very very low. But "low" is not the same as "I can sue the hell out of Amazon if this book scrambles my computer," and a lot of people don't want to take risks that they have no way of measuring.

A little bit of common sense goes a long way in preventing any type of infection from virus/malware/spyware/exploits/etc.

[MikeOxlittle]

I see that the poll has been changed to be anonymous now. I wonder if it was reset and remained anonymous would the results be different?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by MikeOxlittle

If the reason is technical, and someone were to tempt you by saying they would show you step by step how to get 5,000 retail quality ebooks in less than 5 minutes (if you have a decent internet connection) would you still not download it due to your beliefs or would the temptation be too strong to pass up?

Just a hypothetical question ....

Here's the thing. Some of us believe that authors deserve to be paid for their work. We don't deprive authors of their livelihood because we aren't technically capable of stealing their books, but because we like to read, and so we like to reward authors for their hard work in writing the books that we read. It's a concept called "honesty".

[piperclassique]

Thank you, Harry! Straightforward and clear

[Belfaborac]

Very, very few people are consistently 100% honest though, at least in my experience. Most people have areas or situations where they consciously or unconsciously break or are willing to break the law, or engage in behaviour or practices which aren't honest.

Many people are perfectly happy to steal stationary at work, or use the copy machine without paying even though copies cost (say) 10p a go. Some people will take your turkey sandwich from the lunch fridge if they're sure they won't be seen, others again will download songs or books from the internet.

I can't know for sure of course, but I seriously doubt that I know any honest people at all if "100% honest, all of the time" if the standard expected.

[maxiart]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

Very, very few people are consistently 100% honest though, at least in my experience. Most people have areas or situations where they consciously or unconsciously break or are willing to break the law, or engage in behaviour or practices which aren't honest.

Many people are perfectly happy to steal stationary at work, or use the copy machine without paying even though copies cost (say) 10p a go. Some people will take your turkey sandwich from the lunch fridge if they're sure they won't be seen, others again will download songs or books from the internet.

I can't know for sure of course, but I seriously doubt that I know any honest people at all if "100% honest, all of the time" if the standard expected.

And then some people just don't care about honesty for honesty's sake. People who live by their own beliefs, instead of those of others. They will pretend to adjust to majority in times when doing otherwise might cause too much of a stirrup or bother, but otherwise will pretty much not care about how others would consider their actions.

Thats not a justification on piracy (I don't need to justificate myself, after all, and I am pretty much sure you all would not care anyway), but rather a response to what I perceived was an overvaluing of people's sense of honesty in general in what you wrote.

[Belfaborac]

I didn't put a value on anything, I simply pointed out that in my own experience and for most people, pointing out or implying that someone else is dishonest most likely reveals a lack of self-insight.

Nevertheless I think it's both right and important that honesty is valued, since without it society as we know it would break down. It's just that the importance or value of honesty differs from situation to situation.

Most people would still speak to me and treat me as a human being even if they knew I had stolen that turkey sandwich from the lunch fridge*, but some might not. Most people wouldn't be at all bothered if they knew I downloaded two million books*, while some would equate it to armed robbery. Different things are important to different people, but few, if any, are 100% honest.

*- both hypotheticals, in case someone should wonder. Sadly I don't even have access to a lunch fridge.

Originally Posted by maxiart

And then some people just don't care about honesty for honesty's sake. People who live by their own beliefs, instead of those of others. They will pretend to adjust to majority in times when doing otherwise might cause too much of a stirrup or bother, but otherwise will pretty much not care about how others would consider their actions.

To me that sounds exactly like most people.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

I didn't put a value on anything, I simply pointed out that in my own experience and for most people, implying that someone else is dishonest most likely reveals a lack of self-insight.

Nevertheless I think it's both right and important that honesty is valued, since without it society as we know it would break down. It's just that the importance or value of honesty differs from situation to situation.

Certainly nobody is 100% honest, I agree, but it saddens me to see people who profess a love of reading seeming to have a "blind spot" to the fact that eBook piracy is depriving authors of their livelihood.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Here's the thing. Some of us believe that authors deserve to be paid for their work. We don't deprive authors of their livelihood because we aren't technically capable of stealing their books, but because we like to read, and so we like to reward authors for their hard work in writing the books that we read. It's a concept called "honesty".

But from that follows that you cannot buy book second hand or borrow them from a library (if you live in a country which do not compensate authors for library loan).