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The ethics of "free" e-books


Larry.

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Why Trackerneil didn't succeed to earn money? Maybe he try to collect donation to eager. Point of donation isn't 'give money for every copy', it's 'it's your choice will you pay something'. Maybe he shouldn't put his book for donation, and put random price and NOT WORRY about someone downloading book.

Either way, I'm not saying authors should ask for donations if they don't want that. Just put the price on the book, and don't worry about piracy.

I don't worry about people torrenting because I can't do anything about it, but that doesn't mean I think it's okay. Personally, I don't see the problem with just buying a book legally and paying what's asked. We don't expect doctors, lawyers, accountants, or personal trainers to accept less than their stated value, but for some reason we think artists should be willing to accept whatever people choose to pay. I don't understand it. When my massage therapist quoted a price for a 60-minute treatment, I decided whether or not I thought it was worth the money, and proceeded on that basis. I didn't take the service and then pay less because, oh well, that's what I thought it was worth. If I had, I would be a jerk. I don't want to be a jerk, so I just paid for quality service. How nice!

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I don't worry about people torrenting because I can't do anything about it, but that doesn't mean I think it's okay. Personally, I don't see the problem with just buying a book legally and paying what's asked. We don't expect doctors, lawyers, accountants, or personal trainers to accept less than their stated value, but for some reason we think artists should be willing to accept whatever people choose to pay. I don't understand it. When my massage therapist quoted a price for a 60-minute treatment, I decided whether or not I thought it was worth the money, and proceeded on that basis. I didn't take the service and then pay less because, oh well, that's what I thought it was worth. If I had, I would be a jerk. I don't want to be a jerk, so I just paid for quality service. How nice!

It's easy to understand. You can't "pirate" a lawyer's advice. So you grumble and you just pay or you don't cause you have no choice.

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It's easy to understand. You can't "pirate" a lawyer's advice. So you grumble and you just pay or you don't cause you have no choice.

So then is anonymity the key? If people could steal other things as anonymously as they do ebooks, would they do so? Or if they knew that if they illegally downloaded a book everyone would find out, would they still do it? I suppose there's no way to know for sure, but it's an interesting thought experiment.

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So then is anonymity the key? If people could steal other things as anonymously as they do ebooks, would they do so?

Unlikely, people "steal" all the time in museums, in the same copyright-breaking way, when they take photographies, and they are no more anonymous than in any shop. It's likely more complicated than you make it sound.
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So then is anonymity the key? If people could steal other things as anonymously as they do ebooks, would they do so? Or if they knew that if they illegally downloaded a book everyone would find out, would they still do it? I suppose there's no way to know for sure, but it's an interesting thought experiment.

I don't really think it's about anonymity. It's about convenience and/or a lack of any consequence and/or a feeling that they are entitled to the content.

Quite frankly, I've never even seen people who download shit illegally who aren't willing to flat out say they've done it or do it.

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Quite frankly, I've never even seen people who download shit illegally who aren't willing to flat out say they've done it or do it.

How could you possibly know this? I’m sure there are plenty of illegal downloaders who don’t admit and/or pretend to be disgusted by piracy.

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The bolded part. I've been on the website for almost an hour still have not found out how to do this. Searching their tech support says "it is not necessary to backup files from your NOOK to your pc because Barnes and Noble stores the info in your account". I can't use the nook for pc app because it doesn't work with xp or windows 7. B&N tech support basically told me to take a hike, presumably because they know I'm not going to by another one of their e-readers.

Well, shit. I just logged on to my B&N account and it looks like it won't let you download the files straight from the website anymore. It's been a few months since I did that, and they have changed it to that whole "read instantly" thing. I have several books that I haven't backed up yet too, so I am going to have to figure out what to do about this. I'll let you know what I find out. Sorry for the outdated information.

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Unlikely, people "steal" all the time in museums, in the same copyright-breaking way, when they take photographies, and they are no more anonymous than in any shop. It's likely more complicated than you make it sound.

Well, I'm not certain that photographing a painting in a museum is the same thing as torrenting an ebook; I don't know many people who are going to hang a shitty iPhone photograph on their wall in lieu of a real piece of art. However, if you think I have oversimplified, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the complexity.

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