PIRACY PIRACY PIRACY !!!! Seems nobody mentions it when discussions of eBooks come up. I have an eBook reader. It's a nice thing, I admit. Especially for longer books that typically only come in thick editions with tiny tiny fonts. Its easy on the eyes, comfortable to carry, etc. But the fact that anyone can go online and download whatever eBook they want for free and upload it to an eReader is a bit troubling for me. I imagine for every one person who legally buys an eBook, there are probably dozens, if not hundreds who download them illegally. I do not make my living as a writer (yet), and the thought that I could spend a year or more writing my heart out, only to have my work stolen and uploaded is not encouraging. Lets be honest, the current system of digital rights management (DRM) is a joke, and its easy for people to remove the code which keeps eBooks from being copyable. Then again, maybe this is an equalizer of sorts. Only the truly talented authors will become profitable, and the rest will remain amateurs, just like the old days.
Unlike the music industry, the book market is already so flooded with books that are now in the public domain that it wouldn't be difficult for one to compile a whole library of worthwhile reads without dropping a cent. Its also an easily piratable market as its simply transfers of large texts. My question is: When was writing ever considered a profitable venture? It seems to me the starving writer is considered part of the image, but I suppose J.K. Rowling and George RR Martin changed that image somewhat. The case still stands that 99% of writers in my opinion just want to be published and their works widely read and validated. When any arguments comes to piracy always remember that an illegal download in no way constitutes a loss sale in every occurrence.
When someone was never going to buy it to begin with. Of course, it is irrelevant as it is theft in either case.
However, does theft require an actual loss of possession on the part of the one being stolen from? Its one of the largest problems with piracy: There is no physical, actual object being stolen. If you stole a paperback book, you'd be robbing the company of the money it costed to produce and transport the book. Digital piracy creates general problems for me when people simply classify it as "theft, and nothing more." How can I steal something when it can be re-created an infinite amount of times? I'm not pro-piracy in anyway, and I believe we rob writers of their hard intellectual work when we refuse to pay. I just believe digital theft and the actual old-school "I steal your car and you no longer have a car" theft should be seen as different things.
Most definitions of theft say otherwise, pertaining to actual goods, property, or services. Intellectual property is in many ways an oxymoron to me, something that worked for the academic world but does not carry over well to digital sales. You have stolen the value of the writer's service by not paying for his work in my opinion, but you've never actually stolen "property". A digital book has zero to no value If I can duplicate as much as I like. Giving your friend an old paperback you bought and pirating it off the internet are basically the same thing. The only difference is that internet piracy can be done on such a massive scale that it can detrimentally affect sales. I still don't understand why piracy is fought in the legal world by lobbing it together with traditional sense of theft. I believe this strategy is why authorities and businesses have been so ineffective at combating it.
Have you looked up most definitions of theft? It usually involved taking something from someone without their consent. I submit that theft of intellectual property meets that basic definition.
Theft is illegally taking possession of property, regardless of whether there is any measurable loss of value experienced nby the legal owner. The distinctiion is especially important in the digital age. In order to establish theft, a plaintiff or prosecution does not have to demonstrate any deprivation suffered by the legal owner. This site fully supports intellectual property rights, and will not provide a platform for anyone attempting to support piracy in any form. There is therefore nothing this thread needs to discuss.
