Comics piracy crackdown

[J. Strnad]

Originally Posted by Iphinome

Since your book isn't in a genre I read could I just buy you a beer if I ever bump into you?

I'll take whatever I can get!

[J. Strnad]

Originally Posted by SpiderMatt

Nah, that takes away some of the advantage. If I'm inclined to buy you a beer if I ever run into you, I've probably already taken into account the fact that my bumping into your is a pretty unlikely circumstance. I would also have to recognize you, which makes the situation even more unlikely. So in all likelihood, I get to save that five bucks. However, should I ever find myself in that circumstance, then presumably we'd go to a bar where we'd sit down and chat over the beer. It would be the polite thing to do, anyway (and really, why would I buy you a beer otherwise?). So then I get the added bonus of your company, which, given this scenario, would mean I'd get to talk to an author I at least like on some level.

After a few minutes of my company, you'd probably want your beer back. I recommend the book as the superior experience.

[J. Strnad]

So an author should think: hey, I sell 1000 books to 1000 people but I know there are 2000 people who are reading it so 1000 are stealing my stuff.

(Quoted out of context, he isn't really saying that.)

I read once where someone had estimated the average pass-around circulation of a printed book to be about "7." One person bought it, seven people read it before it fell apart, got dropped in a bathtub, was thrown away or ended up in someone's collection.

That's just part of the biz. A library buys one book, a bunch of people read it "for free." I don't have any problem with that. Whoever would expect that absolutely everybody who reads your book paid for it?

I would hope that people who patronize libraries a lot would contribute to their library, so that it can continue purchasing books. You'd have to be pretty damned poor not to be able to toss your library a few bucks now and again.

[Freeshadow]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I don't care about legal terminalogy, most of it is artificial anyway, defined in a way that it it only applicable in the law.

What I care about is what people do an how it affects others. That's why taking something without permission is theft. Pure and simple. No one needs legal definitions or special definitions or terminology to look at the situation and see if for what it is -- theft.

the finetuning definitions of legal terminology assure that ppl can be punished according to the ammount of criminal energy put into an action they made and not according to the outcome.

from your point of view, having killed 20 people in an cold-blooded shooting, and heving caused their dead by e.g. insufficient maintenance of a vehicle would deserve the same penalty because of the outcome: 20 dead human beings.

are you sure that you want a poenal system according to Hammurabi?

[GlennD]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

the finetuning definitions of legal terminology assure that ppl can be punished according to the ammount of criminal energy put into an action they made and not according to the outcome.

from your point of view, having killed 20 people in an cold-blooded shooting, and heving caused their dead by e.g. insufficient maintenance of a vehicle would deserve the same penalty because of the outcome: 20 dead human beings.

are you sure that you want a poenal system according to Hammurabi?

So from YOUR point of view, BP shouldn't be penalized for destroying an entire ecosystem, because the oil spill was negligence and an accident, and not intentional?

We can make these examples as crazy as we want but we stray a long ways from the original question.

[Freeshadow]

@J. Strnad
it coud have appeared on baen books as a part of the story told about the author's wife's co-workers and the circulation of lent copies.

@GlennD
a penalty should surely reflect the difference between accidental and intentional actions.
apart from that the obligation of covering the costs of restoration from a damage is an issue not to be mixed up with penalty but a completely different aspect.