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[ Donate : Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Save The Rhino ] <Prev Next> Subject: Re: Copyright theft? ( 3 of 6 ) Posted by Tony Fabris The argument "I'm not really stealing because I wouldn't have bought it anyway" is interesting, because it's the same argument that software and music pirates use to defend themselves. The recent hubub over the .MP3 audio format is a rehashing of the same argument. It doesn't matter what the medium is: Books, audio, software, etc... they're all copyrighted works, and unauthorized duplication is piracy. The only time duplication is legal is when you make a copy for your own personal use. For example, making a cassette copy of a record album so you can listen to it in your car. Or turning your CD's into MP3's so you can listen to them on your new Rio player. The line from personal use to piracy is crossed when you own a duplicate of something you didn't purchase from the publisher yourself. In the case of the school making copies of textbooks, I'd bet that it's still piracy, and the textbook publishers would be unhappy. In the case of the photocopy of Restaurant, it's definitely piracy if the book doesn't belong to the person making the copy. What I don't understand is why someone thinks that their time spent photocopying a book is somehow not valuable. I'd rather spend five bucks on a paperback than waste my precious time babysitting a cranky photocopier. (Of course, Douglas' works are best read in hardback form. I have a wonderfully-bound gold-leafed anthology of his works that's one of my prized posessions.) The interesting part is how the pirates attempt to rationalize piracy with that silly argument: The publishers say: "Every single instance of piracy is lost revenue. By those figures, our industry loses billions of dollars each year to pirates." The pirates say: "But we wouldn't have bought the product to begin with. So you're really not losing any money, but you're still gaining exposure." As with all two-sided stories, the truth actually lies somewhere in the middle. In the absence of a pirated copy, some folks would make the purchase. Others would not. No one knows for sure how many. <Prev Next>
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