Stealing E-Books

Over at Romancing the Stone, today is Allison Brennan's bi-monthly post and she talks about the illegal download of books. Remember napster? Well, we are beginning to have the equivalent in regard to e-books and she has written an excellent post that everyone needs to read. Check it out.

As far as I'm concerned, it’s all a matter of education. Many young people haven’t been taught it is wrong or they’ve been taught it is okay - what does it matter mentality by their parents who do the same thing. It is an escalation that has been occurring for a long period of time.

One blogger mentioned that her school district is now offering a new program called Digital Citizenship which teaches children how to use technology appropriately. I’m glad to see the school are offering a class to teach about copy write laws and I’m hoping it won’t fall on deaf ears. I don't know if our school district offers such a thing, since we home school. But you can be certain I will be teaching my child all about it.

I remember years back I wanted to make a copy of one of my brother in law's music cd’s he had purchased. He wouldn’t allow it because it was illegal. Up to that point, it had never occurred to me that sharing one’s purchase was wrong. It was an educational moment.

One blogger commented that she thinks $6.99 for an e-book is too much to pay. Aren’t we still paying for the same words and time and commitment the author put into the work? Yes. Just because it is put in a different format, doesn’t mean it should cost any less.

She also justifies her illegal downloading of e-books because she already owns the hard copy and doesn't think it should matter one way or another. I don’t think there is really any justification at all for illegally downloading an e-book just because someone may own the hard copy. It is the same thing as me going into a book store and deciding that just because I own the hard copy, I entitled to steal the paperback copy.

Take a few minutes, go read her post and weigh in with your thoughts, either here or there.

2 comments:

  1. Well said, Robin. Theft is still a theft whether you steal something from a store or online. If it's a matter of money, the library is an excellent resource. Many now have downloadable books. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before libraries figure out how to offer ebooks. I'm glad you brought the subject up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have a neighbor that somehow (I don't want to know) gets bootlegged movies and is always asking me if I want to watch and I always say no. It's just wrong!

    ReplyDelete

Unfortunately due to being spammed, all comments will be moderated and will appear after approval. At least I'm not using the dreaded captcha. Thank you for dropping by!