wanderer33
Jedi
Heimdallr, thanks. What is the PTB?
Good Website for Free Books
- Thread starter dblue
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durabone
Jedi Council Member
Let me clarify that. A friend or library can loan them many times, but serially, one-ata-time. If this guy's site had a "checked out" flag so that the book had to be returned before it could be checked out again, then he might be legal. But I think he is clearly breaking the law.
wanderer33
Jedi
Potamus, many (most?) university libraries have lots of photocopy machines. Observe the students copying texts. Sometimes they copy entire books. Does a portion of the money going into the photocopy machines go to the particular authors?
wanderer33
Jedi
Thanks for the reference people. Vulcan, you sir are a treasure. :)
wanderer33 said:
The university libraries I have been to all have Fair Use notice posted next to the photocopying machines. Under Fair Use, students may copy a chapter or 10% of a book. Of course, some students ignore that, but they are breaking the law in doing that.
wanderer33
Jedi
Whether its 10% or 100%, the principal remains the same. I think the authors do no receive royalties from the practice.
Maybe the problem is not if it is legal or not. After all, legality is subjective. The question is whenever the user of the book values or not the effort and hard work of the still living writer, and that's a question of will, of quality of being, and also of energy exchange as mentioned.
wanderer33
Jedi
Now, that comment I agree with wholeheartedly. ;D
John G
The Living Force
Copying 10% and not doing anything with it is no worse than remembering 10% of what you read. If you do something with it, like using it for research, you are supposed to cite your source. Thus it's kind of like free publicity for the use of the 10%. It would be like telling about parts of the books to your friends, some free publicity. It's like a movie trailer.wanderer33 said:
wanderer33
Jedi
Heinz's Dilemma looks significantly like Gurdjieff's Dilemma. Similar moral issues although Gurdjieff wasn't intent on saving the life of a loved one. Maybe Gurdjieff believed that his thirst for spiritual knowledge was to him as worthy as saving a beloved's life. Maybe he thought his soul life was ultimately the most important thing that he could consider. Whatever he thought, it was an interesting dilemma.
wanderer33
Jedi
There is also another underlying problem related to law. What and whose law do we come under. If one was in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945 one's obedience to the law is problematic. Certain people could legitimately sack a Jewish person's home and property under Nazi law. If one is under Sharia law, this could also be problematic. The fact that there is no law against the unlimited use of alcohol in the west is also problematic. Moral laws are usually historically shaped by one's culture.
The ten commandments are a group of religious laws, even they have suffered over time. Some laws are in my view utterly bizarre. Tribal laws of animist peoples for example can be quite strange. Some others I wish would be adopted by my own culture.
Arguments from law are weak as a result of these problems.
The ten commandments are a group of religious laws, even they have suffered over time. Some laws are in my view utterly bizarre. Tribal laws of animist peoples for example can be quite strange. Some others I wish would be adopted by my own culture.
Arguments from law are weak as a result of these problems.
Wanderer33,
What is under discussion is the downloading of free ebooks from Internet. It is not about morality or legality in general. We can talk about those in general terms until the cows come home and achieve nothing.
I think what is really at stake here are author income and the balance of energy exchange between the authors and the readers. A free ebook website can easily turn an ebook copy into many thousands copies with no income being paid to the author. And do you really believe that downloaders will delete their copies after they finish with the book? In contrast, there is only one copy, the one that has been purchased, being lent out by a library. Some library patrons may photocopy their own copies but very few do so. In addition, a few countries such as Britain, Canada even pay royalties to authors for library checkouts. So there is really no comparison between libraries and free ebook websites.
There are some cases where it may be objectively justifiable to share or use ebooks without paying. But it has to be considered on a case-by-case basis. A free ebook website doesn't qualify for that. OSIT.
What is under discussion is the downloading of free ebooks from Internet. It is not about morality or legality in general. We can talk about those in general terms until the cows come home and achieve nothing.
I think what is really at stake here are author income and the balance of energy exchange between the authors and the readers. A free ebook website can easily turn an ebook copy into many thousands copies with no income being paid to the author. And do you really believe that downloaders will delete their copies after they finish with the book? In contrast, there is only one copy, the one that has been purchased, being lent out by a library. Some library patrons may photocopy their own copies but very few do so. In addition, a few countries such as Britain, Canada even pay royalties to authors for library checkouts. So there is really no comparison between libraries and free ebook websites.
There are some cases where it may be objectively justifiable to share or use ebooks without paying. But it has to be considered on a case-by-case basis. A free ebook website doesn't qualify for that. OSIT.