------ art_70737_24501007.1147817281343 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Not to add fuel to the fire... but... On 5/16/06, Paul Battley <pbattley / gmail.com> wrote: > > I try not to call it theft either. Whilst some people equate copyright > infringement with theft, they are substantively and legally different. > Whether they are morally equivalent is a different matter, though. > Confusing the vocabulary doesn't help to advance the debate. There's significant jail time in a federal prison as well as up to $250K per incident for copyright infringment. This compares with little or no jail time for petty theft... stealing a book off a shelf. So, you are correct that the law takes a different view of violating Intellectual Property rights and petty theft. The law views violations of IP rights (e.g., illegally sharing the PDF of a book) as much worse offenses. I see no debate about flagrantly violating the law by illegally distributing the PDF of David's book. While there might be a fair use justification for emailing a friend a copy so he/she can evaluate it before buying it, there's no legal justification for putting the PDF on a P2P system. Such actions are violations of the law and deprive an author of earning a legitimate fee for a valuable offering. If you don't like the price for the PDF don't buy it. It works the same way for a virtual good as it does for a physical good. -- -------- David Pollak's Ruby Playground http://dppruby.com ------ art_70737_24501007.1147817281343--