From: pat eyler Date: 2006-05-16T11:44:47+09:00 Subject: Re: Ticked Off On 5/15/06, Elliot Temple wrote: > > On May 15, 2006, at 4:07 PM, Jeremy Tregunna wrote: > > > > > On 15-May-06, at 7:03 PM, Elliot Temple wrote: > > > >> But is every case of piracy deserving of the same great scorn? > > > > Yes. > > > >> I realise this may be a tangential issue, but if someone can't > >> afford a book and is not going to buy it either way, whom has he > >> harmed by downloading it? > > > > That's like saying that you're stuck with someone, and you're not > > going to share your food either way, so what harm is there in > > killing the person now instead of letting him starve to death. > > That's just a silly way of thinking. > > The harm there is that he would die sooner than he would if he were > left un-murdered. He loses that amount of his life. But the thing is, > who is harmed in the hypothetical case I described? everyone of us who wants to see books continue to be made available in electronic formats. A number of publishers are sitting on the fence about whether they should continue to provide (or start to provide) books like this -- redistributing copies (stealing them) is helping to keep them away. Who is harmed? I am. You are. Every one of us is. > > -- Elliot Temple > http://www.curi.us/blog/ > > > > > -- thanks, -pate ------------------------- http://on-ruby.blogspot.com