Stealing books

[Quoth]

Even before they are published.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ed-manuscripts

But why was he able to get away with it so long, or even at all?

Tip of the iceberg compared to ARC piracy and still publishers and Amazon waste our time with DRM.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Quoth

But why was he able to get away with it so long, or even at all?

The great majority of crimes do not result in an arrest.

One might, though, say that after committing a crime a few dozen times, your chances of arrest go way up.

I think the miscreant beat the odds because he never tried to profit, and never tried to reduce the income of authors and publishers. While wire fraud is something you should never do, I find his to be minor crimes.

Compare it to someone who uploads under-copyright eBooks to an illicit web site. That seems to me a far more serious crime, even if the number of eBooks is a lot less than 1,000.

I hope the guilty party is not sent to prison.

[meeera]

This appears to be a wire fraud conviction, not stealing.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by meeera

This appears to be a wire fraud conviction, not stealing.

Wire Fraud

Federal prosecutors tend to use wire fraud as "catch-all" type of crime. When prosecutors are unable to prove other serious fraud crimes, they often have enough to prove wire fraud.

I think this is, morally, akin to shoplifting made-in-the-U.S.A. item(s), for your own use, while in the UK, and then American authorities arrest you and try to apply our draconian penalties.

I put the s in items in parentheses because he was he was only convicted of one count.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Wire Fraud

I think this is, morally, akin to shoplifting made-in-the-U.S.A. item(s), for your own use, while in the UK, and then American authorities arrest you and try to apply our draconian penalties.

Confusing comparison, because shoplifting remains very obviously stealing regardless of where the item was made - you have taken a tangible object, intending to permanently deprive the owner of it.

[Quoth]

Morally it's akin to pretending to be someone known to someone and then having an email, fax, sms or phone conversation while pretending to be that person.

He may not have distributed or sold the MSS, but it was certainly obtaining copies of them fraudulently. Thus he could be said to have stolen MSS.

The prosecution is for "wire fraud" as remote fraud via email contacts was involved. That kind of offence was invented due to fraud on wired telegraphs in USA, but the first instances of telegraphic fraud involved share dealing in Europe via semaphore telegraph (Terry Pratchett's Clacks was real before wired telegraphy was invented).

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Morally it's akin to pretending to be someone known to someone and then having an email, fax, sms or phone conversation while pretending to be that person.

Sounds then comparable to a prank call:

A radio station in the American state of Florida has played a practical joke on President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela with a hoax phone call he believed was from his friend and ally, the Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

and:

Queen Elizabeth II was tricked into going on the air with a radio host impersonating the Canadian prime minister . . .

Then there's:

Sacha Baron Cohen.

I am fine with Simon & Schuster firing an employee for the thread title offense, especially if the evidence for multiple occurrences is strong. And media outlets should discipline employees who engage in prank calls, regardless of whether the victims are famous.

Federal prison when there seem to be zero prior offenses? No, even if the overt acts were committed in the U.S., which was not the case.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Quoth

He may not have distributed or sold the MSS, but it was certainly obtaining copies of them fraudulently. Thus he could be said to have stolen MSS.

Yes, you can think of it that way in your head if you like, but we're talking about actual charges for a crime here. There was no stealing charge. The headline "Man pleads guilty to stealing " is just not true.

[Quoth]

Media headlines have never been good on Truthiness. Clickbait even before the Internet

[crossi]

Who cares if they got copies early. They can't publish them. As for the early copies, they would be freely available to buy in a few months anyway.

[Quoth]

Obsession rather than piracy, so he got off lightly.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ni-spared-jail

I stupidly started a new thread too.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Obsession rather than piracy, so he got off lightly.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ni-spared-jail

I stupidly started a new thread too.

Let he who hath never started a new thread cast the first stone.
Apache