Mcjon01 Wrote:Piracy. Not theft. The publisher still has a copy of their book, I didn't take it from them. Not that I feel any need to justify theft; if nothing bad happens to me for doing it, then it wasn't wrong. Besides, I've always found copyrights on language learning materials to be something of a joke, since it's pretty much one step away from trying to copyright a language. What's next, putting patents on genes? (Oh, wait...)
But I digress. The real question is, if I download a PDF copy of a book that I've never heard of and have no intention of ever buying, and then never so much as open that file, did I still steal something?
Various societies from before you were born decided that ideas made tangible in works of art and literature can be protected by force of law. So your opinions on the matter will only take you so far should the powers that be decide to exercise their rights. You can of course go about the various methods to change the law and/or the enforcement of it. Don't want to agree and play along with Society? Don't bitch when Society makes their feelings known toward you in a very harsh way.
That said, with the internet, it's mandatory to rethink what can be reasonably protected. Obtaining a copy is not a bad as giving out the copies. Sort of a piracy equivalent of punishing the dealer of drugs instead of the buyer. In fact, with the internet, it shows the obsurdity of enforcing copyright on easy to pass on materials. Imagine back in 1950 trying to get ANYONE that heard a song on the radio to send 5 cents to the owners of that song (whether you wanted to listen to it or not). Once an item is out there, it's nigh impossible to get it removed.
Let's face it, Corporations (well, the suits in charge of it), wanted to make tape recorders, video recorders, camcorders, file decryption software, internet sharing, etc. illegal. Anything that prevented them from getting some sort of compensation they wanted to use government to prevent further use. Luckily, the US courts have been more liberal on the legality recording devices. In fact, it's now the corpations use of easy to record items and distribution methods (DVD's, Software, Internet backbones) that gave them record profits that allows the ease of passing their coveted copyrighted items. Basicly, they want their cake, and eat it too.
Anyway, copyright is still such a huge topic, no thread will ever do it justice. Usually it'll devolve to someone calling someone else a Nazi I'm sure.
