From: C Erler <erlercw@...>
Date: 2006-05-17T20:40:21+09:00
Subject: Re: Ticked Off

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"If I can't afford it or wouldn't pay for it anyway, who would it harm ?"
There are two parts to this: you're not getting any money from me anyway an=
d
I'm not harming by taking it.

If you need the book like a man who is destitute needs a loaf of bread
(you're going to die or suffer serious injury) no one is going to have much
moral scorn for you if you take it.  If that's the case, ask the author for
a copy, your friends for some money, your library for a copy; if no one can
help you, by all means, take it.

The argument isn't usually used as a defense of that sort of thing.
Instead, those who give it simply want something pleasurable.  Since this i=
s
almost certainly the case, if a man works hard for your enjoyment and asks
for something in return that you can't provide, why not forgo the pleasure
instead of treating him like a slave who must provide for your wants for
nothing in return ?

If he's not getting anything pleasurable (money) from you anyway, why are
you getting anything pleasurable (knowledge presented well) from him anyway
?  Is he your slave ?

You may not be causing him any harm, sure.  However, this is a parlor trick=
,
a magician's misdirection: look at this one moral harm over here I've
avoided, ignore the one behind the curtain.  The moral problem isn't harm,
it's taking without giving when you didn't need to take at all.

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