On May 15, 2006, at 3:26 PM, Logan Capaldo wrote:

>
> On May 15, 2006, at 5:06 PM, Austin Ziegler wrote:
>
>> Okay, I'll admit it. I'm really pissed off. I don't pay attention to
>> what goes on on the #ruby-talk IRC channel these days all that much,
>> but something happened this afternoon that thoroughly pissed me off.
>>
>>  [0515/16.53] hatezilla: seriously, pick it up. if you're iffy, get
>> on emule and search
>>  for "ruby for rails" ... there's tons of pdfs floating around if you
>> know where to look
>>
>> I consider David Black a friend of mine. I am *seriously* pissed off
>> that some pissant little freak would advocate this action at all. I
>> was similarly annoyed that people reacted as badly to Dave Thomas's
>> announcement that the Rails 2nd Edition would be the same price.  
>> These
>> people have done a *lot* for the Ruby community.
>>
>> They deserve your financial support. Don't be a pissant thief. Even
>> temporarily. There are "sample chapters" for a reason.
>>
>>
>
> What really boggles my mind about this is, yes a book is easier and  
> maybe you can't afford it, but its not like there aren't docs. You  
> even have the source code.

I am sympathetic to your annoyance. I don't think it is OK to suggest/ 
advocate downloading ruby books in the IRC channel or on this mailing  
list: most readers here can afford to buy programming books; it's bad  
to advocate illegal activities in public; free documentation,  
tutorials, source code, advice, etc is available; and it's  
discourteous to authors who regularly give free help here. But is  
every case of piracy deserving of the same great scorn? I realise  
this may be a tangential issue, but if someone can't afford a book  
and is not going to buy it either way, whom has he harmed by  
downloading it?

-- Elliot Temple
http://www.curi.us/blog/