From: Bill Kelly <billk@...>
Date: 2006-05-16T11:54:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Ticked Off

From: "Elliot Temple" <curi@curi.us>
>
> [...] But is  
> every case of piracy deserving of the same great scorn? 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?

I think this has the makings of a False Dilemma, or Loaded
Question, or something of that ilk.

It's really postulating two separate conditions: a) can't afford
it, and b) not going to buy it *EITHER WAY*.

"a" is something one would i suppose have to examine on a case
by case basis to determine the, shall we say, veracity of the
claim.  How many programmers can't afford to put away $10 per
month toward a book they want to buy.  (Hint: unsubscribe to
bustygrannieswearingapronscookingnude.com)

"b" is the nice slippery slope -> convenient excuse used by
people who don't want to pay for something they can digitally
copy: Oh well, I wasn't going to buy it anyway, but I still
want the *value* from it.  But: "EITHER WAY" means even if I
*could afford* it, I have no intention of paying for it, so
I'll just copy it and receive the value from it without paying
for it--I'm not hurting anybody.

I think that's inherently some kind of false choice, because
if you don't pay for it, you're not _entitled_ to the value.
So you don't *get* to decide to reap the value from someone
else's work because you _decided_ you didn't want to pay for
it.

Saying you weren't going to buy it either way but still are
entitled to obtain the value from the work, is just bogus.
If you aren't going to buy it, you don't get to read it.
(Or listen to it, or watch it, or play it.)

The problem is, I think the people who are truly in the "a"
/can't afford even $10-per-month/ category for programming
books is so slim, it usually comes down to people in the "b"
/decided I wouldn't buy it but still want the value from it/
category.

If you're really an "a", maybe you can send a note to the
author asking about student discounts or whatnot; for 
everybody else in "b" either unsubscribe to your pr0n sites
and buy the book, or have the honesty to admit that taking
the value from a commercial product without paying for it
is stealing from the author and publisher.

(Personally, I'm not campaigning for Sainthood.  I've made
a few mistakes with digital media over the years; but I 
will never try to rationalize the few things I never did
pay for in the last 20 years as not hurting anybody.)


Regards,

Bill